AMERICAN IDOL: Phillip Phillips is the Season 11 winner of AMERICAN IDOL at the Nokia Theatre on Weds. May 23, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. CR: Michael Becker/FOX

“Idol” winner Phillip Phillips‘ coronation song ‘Home” debuted last week at No. 2 on the Billboard digital songs list with 278,000 in sales.

That’s the best opening week for a winners’ song since Soundscan began tracking downloads in 2003.

But even counting singles sales in CD form, Phillips’ opening week was the third best ever, only behind Ruben Studdard’s “Flying Without Wings” and Clay Aiken’s “This is the Night” from that magical season two.

“Idol Chatter” in USA Today tallied the top 11:

1. Clay Aiken, This Is the Night (393,000 first-week sales)
2. Ruben Studdard, Flying Without Wings (286,000)
3. Phillip Phillips, Home (278,000)
4. David Cook, Time of My Life (236,000)
5. Kelly Clarkson, A Moment Like This (236,000)
6. Taylor Hicks, Do I Make You Proud (228,000)
   
7. Scotty McCreery, I Love You This Big (171,000)
8. Carrie Underwood, Inside Your Heaven (171,000)
9. Fantasia, I Believe (142,000)
10. Kris Allen, No Boundaries (134,000)
11. Lauren Alaina, Like My Mother Does (122,000)

Phillips had nine songs on the digital top 200 compared to 11 for Kris Allen season eight and 17 for David Cook season seven.

- Nigel Lythgoe is my idol. He is honest and logical in his assessment of “Idol,” its competition and how things went this past year, courtesy of Michael Slezak of TV Line.

A sampling:

TVLINE | Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly recently told reporters that Idol‘s Season 11 ratings dipped “more than anticipated” and that in retrospect the show should’ve made more creative tweaks to stay competitive in the crowded reality singing competition space. How did you feel about those remarks, especially considering that in many ways, Season 11 felt like a genuine creative success?

Lythgoe: I’m shocked that he would say we didn’t anticipate that. We always stayed away from [airing] two seasons of American Idol [per calendar year], knowing that ratings would dip, and the public would get tired. It’s just the very nature of offering the audience too much [of a particular thing]. Now, if you’re going to do The X Factor on the same [network] as American Idol, that’s like two American Idols back-to-back. So, yes, I’m shocked that they thought that the ratings wouldn’t dip. Plus, The Voice is in the mix now, too. There’s just a lot more on offer today, and kids don’t always watch the television anymore. The world has changed in the 11 years that we’ve been doing this.

He said this was a rare year where he couldn’t tell who would be the winner. He said the vote leaders would change each week. He is open to looking at voting changes given that a somewhat similar type singer has won the past five years (the white guy with guitar factor). He even jokes about the Filipinos supposedly voting for Jessica.

He felt Ruben Studdard, post “Idol,” was pigeon holed into R&B and not given a chance to cross over. (I agree.) He noted the big production values on “X Factor” and wanted to jazz up “Idol” a bit but not at the expense of the contestants. (I think he more or less succeeded on that front.)

And the killer quote of the interview: “The television producers, of which I include myself, don’t give a damn who wins this show. The only thing we’re interested in is turning out a fabulous show for people to watch. We get no money from the record companies or anything else.”

- There was a point when I thought “Good Girl” by Carrie Underwood was stalling but alas, country radio is pushing her into the top two again. She’s now battling “No Hurry” by Georgia’s Zac Brown Band (another act that has never had a song below the top two) for the top spot, as Georgia Kip Moore’s first no. 1 “Somethin’ About a Truck” is starting to lose steam. This would be Underwood’s 14th consecutive top 2 single on the country chart.

- The final ratings for “Idol’ was 21.5 million viewers, the lowest ever. Honestly, given “Duets” and “AGT” now, “The Voice” and “X Factor” in the fall and then “The Voice” again in the spring, music show burnout is inevitable. “Idol” can only see things going down, I fathom. It’s sad, but true.

- Here’s Adam Lambert’s video “Never Close Your Eyes”

- Want to hear Britney Spears insult a contestant during the “X Factor” Austin auditions? Here’s audio, courtesy of some Britney fan site:

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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk