"American Idol" Showdown Avoided
American Idol fans hoping for a record-store rematch when Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken release their debut albums next month will be disappointed.
RCA has scrapped its original plan to release the amateur singers' albums simultaneously on August 19.
"They are not going to come out on the same day," an RCA spokesperson tells E! News Live. Instead, the label plans on releasing them "spaced apart."
The turnaround nixes a so-far successful strategy of pitting the velvet crooner against the geek-to-chic singer, first as they vied for votes on Fox's Idol and then as they went toe-to-tapping-toe on the singles charts.
RCA and American Idol producers had hoped to cash in on the continued conflict in round three of Ruben versus Clay: the record store.
Judge Simon Cowell initially trumpeted the showdown gimmick moments after the finale of the second American Idol and RCA execs latched on to the idea.
"We saw the releases as a way for consumers to vote with their money," RCA music group's director of sales Karen Lieberman said recently.
A quick recap: Some 34 million tuned in to watch Studdard win the first showdown against Aiken on Idol's May 21 finale.
However, the scrawny redhead made a comeback in the next round with his chart-topping single, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which pushed Studdard's "Flying Without Wings" to second place on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, 393,000 copies to 286,000 copies. (Both singles were released June 10.) Incidentally, both fellas beat first-season winner Kelly Clarkson, whose debut single "A Moment Like This" moved 236,000 copies.
Aiken's victory continued to fuel conspiracy theories that the North Carolina-born contestant had been defeated in the TV talent show due to jammed phone lines and not Studdard's stellar performance.
Aiken fans were undoubtedly hoping for another victory next month to prove their guy was the rightful owner of the Idol title.
Now, RCA says the albums won't be released (separately) until some time in September. "There's still recording that needs to be done," a label spokesperson told TV Guide Online.
Sources speculate that the label could be worried about the albums potentially siphoning sales from each other and damaging the franchise, especially in the wake of the disappointing sales of Justin Guarini's self-titled debut album and the tanking of From Justin to Kelly in theaters.
Guarini sold a pitiful 57,000 copies when his album debuted last month, while his big-screen beach-blanket romp with Clarkson was a washout with a mere $2.7 million in ticket sales rung up on its opening weekend two weeks ago and just $625,000 last weekend, for a not-so-grand total of $4.6 million. Expect it on video-store shelves by the end of next month.
RCA does have a precedent for delaying an Idol release. The label held up Clarkson's solo debut, Thankful, for several months, and the disc has been a top 10 mainstay ever since its April release, moving more than one million copies.
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