Poor, poor Blake. . .

It’s a sad year for the American Idol winner and runner-up. . not only did Jordin’s debut album open to disappointing sales but so did Blake Lewis’ debut. This year’s “American Idol” runner-up, Blake Lewis, starts at No. 10 with his debut album, “Audio Day Dream” (19 Recordings/Arista), moving 98,000. Lewis’ opening sales week and chart debut is lower than that of three other “AI” runner-ups’ debuts (Clay Aiken, Bo Bice and Katharine McPhee), but larger than two others (Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo). . . sucks.

Surprisingly, with the holiday season marching on, Josh Groban’s “Noel” retains its lead on The Billboard 200 for a third week straight. With an 8% sales increase, the 143/Reprise set moved 581,000 units in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Groban thus ties Elvis Presley as the record-holder for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 with a Christmas album.