Who Charted?: The Bald Dude Wins By A Hair

Chris Daughtry, the American Idol runner-up with the shaved head and the Ed Kowalczyk obsession, rose to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 this week. Daughtry’s self-titled full-length beat out the No 2. album, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, by about 160 units; it sold an estimated 65,000 copies.

Biggest Debuts: Diana Ross’ cash-in cover-song collection, I Love You, sold 21,000 copies and entered the chart at No. 32. And despite tons of press and blogger love, the America-meets-hipsters “comeback” record, Here & Now, entered at No. 52 (14,000 copies).

Biggest Slides: Even though Daughtry and Dreamgirls rode sales surges into the top two slots on the chart, overall, the sales picture looked pretty bleak; album sales this week totaled 8.09 million units, a whopping 14.7% decline from this time last year (9.48 million albums). Perhaps it can be chalked up in part to a weak roster of debuting albums–however, if the numbers are as grim in two weeks, which is when Norah Jones’ sales totals will be tallied by the charts, expect a lot of panicking.

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Sure, its staying power is attributable to the soft CD-sale market, but this week’s chart recaps note that Daughtry’s album has never left the top 11 of the Billboard 200 since its release in November. Take that, Chad Kroeger.

‘Idol’ Worship: Daughtry Takes No. 1 [Billboard.biz]