The 2014 music marketplace has not been kind to reality competition series winners.
In February, season twelve American Idol” winner Candice Glover garnered just 19,000 opening week sales for her “Music Speaks.” It was the lowest inaugural week tally ever for an “Idol” winner’s first post-show album.
In early July, season five “The Voice” winner Tessanne Chin also struggled to get out of the gate. Her post-show release “Count on My Love” moved roughly 7,000 copies to rank as the worst performing post-show debut for a “Voice” winner.
The latest victim is season thirteen “Idol” winner Caleb Johnson, whose debut album “Testify” is tracking to score considerably fewer first week sales than the Glover album.
According to Hits Daily Double, “Testify” is tracking to move just 9-11,000. Assuming that projection proves even remotely true–and with a full day of sales data in the bank, there is no reason to believe it will be more than slightly off base–Caleb Johnson’s album will set the new low mark for an “Idol” release.
It now appears that the strongest post-show release in 2014 will come in October, when winning “X Factor” season 3 duo Alex & Sierra launches “It’s About Us.” While the modest early reaction to debut single “Scarecrow” removes any reason to believe the album will be a blockbuster, it should have no trouble moving more than 9-11,000 copies in its first week.
Interestingly enough, “The X Factor” drew the smallest audience of the three shows and will not return for a fourth season.