Nashville Star 2 winner Brad Cotter may not be another Buddy Jewell ... but he didn't do too badly, either.
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In its debut, Brad's Sony Nashville CD Patient Man opened at #27 on the Nielsen SoundScan U.S. Album Sales chart (also known as the Billboard 200) for the week ended July 11, with total sales of 34,000 units. Patient Man also held down the #4 slot on the Country Album Sales chart.
Although Brad's sales are very good for a country-music release by a new artist, they fall short of the standard set by Nashville Star 1 winner Buddy Jewell, whose eponymous debut CD opened at #13 with sales of 52,000 units (about 50% more than Brad) ... and eventually was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of over 500,000 units.
Brad's debut sales are also well below the level set by American Idol 2 fourth-place finisher Josh Gracin, whose eponymous album on Lyric Street Records debuted at #11 with sales of 57,000 units. However, Nashville Star, which airs on the NBC-affiliated USA Network, also doesn't reach the huge audience of Fox's American Idol, the #1 show on television in the 2003-04 season.