Quick Takes: Kelly Clarkson still reigns

Carrie Underwood may have sold more albums than Kelly Clarkson, but the original “American Idol” winner is still the most successful, according to Billboard.

Clarkson has sold 10.6 million albums, 15.9 million tracks and has had 4.2 million radio plays, according to Billboard.com, ranking her the top graduate from “Idol.” Underwood has 11.5 million and 13.9 million for album and single sales, respectively. The country singer also had 2.4 million radio plays since she won “Idol” in 2005.

The third most successful “Idol” never won the crown and wasn’t even a runner-up: It’s Chris Daughtry, who fronts his own band, which has sold 5.7 million albums.

—Associated Press

Curtain falls

on ‘Enron’

Tuesday’s announcement of the 2010 Tony nominations set off the usual closing reverberations, most spectacularly for “Enron.” Lucy Prebble’s lavish docudrama folds Sunday at a loss of $3.5 million to $4 million, making it one of the most expensive flops of a play in recent years.

The production, directed by Rupert Goold, opened last month to largely unenthusiastic reviews. It will close after only 16 performances and 22 previews.

The play about the financial finagling and downfall of the Texas-based energy company received four Tony nominations, but was shut out of the all important best-play category, considered crucial by producers for drawing audiences.

Yet there was some positive fallout too. “Time Stands Still,” Donald Margulies’ play about a passionate photojournalist, did get a best-play nod, and though it has ended its limited nonprofit engagement, Manhattan Theatre Club said Wednesday that it would bring the play back in September for another Broadway run.

—Associated Press

Newcomer tops music charts

A 21-year-old hip-hop newcomer from Atlanta, Bobby Ray Simmons, topped the national sales chart in his first week out with “B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray.”

Billboard/Nielsen SoundScan reported Wednesday that the album sold 84,000 copies, helped along by the presence of a number of high-profile guests including Eminem, T.I., Lupe Fiasco and Rivers Cuomo.

That was considerably more impressive than the lackluster first-week response to the latest outing for Courtney Love’s band Hole, which came in at No. 15 with sales of just 22,000 for “Nobody’s Daughter.”

Among other new Top 10 entries were Bullet for My Valentine’s “Fever,” opening at No. 3 with sales of 71,000 copies; Melissa Etheridge’s “Fearless Love,” at No. 7 with sales of 46,000; and Miranda Cosgrove’s “Sparks Fly,” landing at No. 8 after selling 36,000 copies.

—Randy Lewis

Kilborn returns with TV show

Former “Daily Show” and “Late Late Show” host Craig Kilborn is looking to return to television in an early evening program that will be tested this summer in a handful of major markets, including on KTTV-TV Channel 11 in Los Angeles.

The half-hour program, which is being developed by News Corp.’s 20th Television, will have about a two-month trial run. Talk shows in the early evening are rare in television as most local stations prefer to carry reruns of situation comedies or staples such as “Wheel of Fortune” or “Entertainment Tonight.”

Kilborn, 47, first rose to prominence as an ESPN personality where he was known for his dry wit as an anchor of the channel’s wildly popular “SportsCenter.” He departed ESPN and was the original host of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” for three years.

The former college basketball player left Comedy Central for broadcast TV in 1999 and went to CBS as the successor to Tom Snyder. Since leaving that show in 2004, he has popped up in the occasional movie (“Old School”).

—Joe Flint

Woodward book on Obama due

A Bob Woodward book on the Obama administration is coming out in September.

Simon & Schuster spokeswoman Victoria Meyer confirmed the Woodward release, currently listed on Amazon.com, but declined further comment Wednesday. The book does not yet have a title.

Woodward, the former investigative reporter known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Watergate scandal with Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein, wrote four bestsellers about the Bush administration that featured interviews with the president and other top officials.

—Associated Press

Video gamer wins $1 million

Shh, don’t tell your kids. Wade McGilberry just won a million dollars playing a video game.

The 23-year-old from Mobile, Ala., accomplished the feat in just an hour and a half, becoming the first to pitch a perfect game in Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s Major League Baseball 2K10.

McGilberry, a records keeper for 401(k) retirement plans, and his wife, Katy, plan to pay off their mortgage and start a family with the winnings. “We are trying to be responsible with it. We are simple people,” said Katy McGilberry, also 23.

Take-Two offered the $1-million prize to the first person to pitch a perfect game.

—Associated Press