" On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, Measure of a Man, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years, and to date the highest debut of any Idol.
In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe
revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every
week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random
voting result gave Studdard the win.[16] Though officially Aiken was the show's "first runner-up," he has since gone on to be the second season's best-selling star."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_aiken)