The honors just keep coming for Garner's Scotty McCreery, whose first CD has just gone platinum.

"Clear As Day," released in October, has sold more than 1 million copies.

"It means the world to me,” said Scotty, 18, who became the winner of Season 10 of "American Idol" in May. “It’s one of the highest honors you can get with your album, and it’s a huge testament to the loyalty of country music fans and how great they have been to me."

We joined in on the speculation back in September that Clay Aiken would be competing on the next season of "The Celebrity Apprentice" -- and we were right! (Okay, technically, the Reality Blurred blogger was right, but we happily glommed on!)

The Raleigh native, who was a runner-up on the second season of "American Idol," was officially announced yesterday as a member of the 5th season of "The Celebrity Apprentice," which also features Arsenio Hall, Lou Ferrigno, Cheryl Tiegs, Penn Gillette, Debbie Gibson, Adam Carolla, and others.

In an interview with "Today.com," Aiken said he respects "Celebrity Apprentice" host Donald Trump more than he respected Simon Cowell, the head judge on "American Idol," because Trump's "success is real outside of TV." Ouch.

Scotty McCreery's incredible year continued tonight as he won his first award at a country music awards show. Scotty was named the top New Artist at the American Country Awards.

The awards, airing live from Las Vegas, are voted on by music fans. Winners receive customized Fender Telecaster guitars. Scotty joked that his first award was "a dadgum Telecaster."

Scotty, the Garner High School senior and "American Idol" winner, likely had a heads-up that he was going to win tonight's award. As soon as his name was announced as the winner, the stage opened to reveal him singing his current hit, "The Trouble With Girls."

When politicians don't like stories about them in The N&O, they say we're "just trying to sell papers." The latest politician to make this charge is Tracey Cline, the Durham district attorney who was the subjct of a three-day series in early September.  Actually, that kind of work doesn't typically sell papers. Sales of The N&O on Sept. 4-6, when we ran our "Twisted Truth" series about Cline, were down from a year earlier.

What does sell papers is winning sports teams. The Hurricanes' NHL championship and Duke and UNC NCAA men's basketball championships all were big sellers, especially the day after the final game. While politics does not typically sell papers, Barack Obama's election in November 2008 was a big seller.

Anything about American Idol winner Scotty McCreery of Garner also sells The N&O. For example, on Saturday, Oct. 8, we published a Scotty poster page to mark his appearance that day at Walnut Creek. McCreery was celebrating the release of his album, "Clear As Day," and his 18th birthday. We sold about 1,500 extra copies of The N&O that day.

We put Scotty on the front page today after he sang the national anthem Wednesday night before the opening game of the World Series. It's too soon to say whether that sold any papers but it could not have hurt. The N&O's Thad Ogburn, who has written several stories about McCreery, reports today that McCreery, a pitcher, hopes to play for the Garner High Trojans in the spring.

--John Drescher

Scotty McCreery has already won "American Idol" and debuted with the No. 1 album in the nation. Tonight, the lifelong baseball fan will have another dream fulfilled — he'll be singing the National Anthem before the first game of the World Series.

Scotty got a little practice earlier this month when he sang the National Anthem before N.C. State's home football game against Central Michigan. (See a photo gallery of that performance here.)

But in an interview this morning from St. Louis, Scotty said he's still "really nervous" because this is such a big stage to be singing on. He said his mother, Judy McCreery, has been having him write and rewrite the words to the song so he doesn't forget them.

He's also drinking a lot of warm tea today to get his voice ready. (It's cold and rainy in St. Louis this morning, he reports.)

With all the fame and glory that Scotty McCreery received after being named "American Idol" in May, one thing has been missing — the Ford vehicle he got to pick out as a victory prize.

That will be rectified on Saturday, when Scotty goes to Crossroads Ford of Cary to get his Ford -F150 King Ranch.

In an interview last month at his Garner home, Scotty said his truck was on order. His mom, Judy McCreery, joked that Scotty would be covering the insurance on the new vehicle himself.

Scotty McCreery has made history on the Billboard charts in his CD's first week.

The Garner resident and "American Idol" winner's "Clear As Day" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, according to figures released today. First week sales of the album totaled 196,739.

That's worthy of several superlatives:

--youngest male artist in history to reach No. 1 with a debut release. (Previous record-holder was Omarion, who was 20 when his debut "O" opened at No. 1 in 2005. Scotty just turned 18 on Sunday.)

This is a big week for Garner's Scotty McCreery. The list of events below includes television appearances:

Monday
"Today" (7 a.m.-10 a.m., NBC)
"Introducing: Scotty McCreery" (9 p.m., cable channel GAC)

Tuesday
"Clear As Day" album released
"Live With Regis and Kelly" (9 a.m., WTVD in the Triangle)
The 10 a.m. hour of "Today" (NBC)

Wednesday
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (11:35 p.m., NBC)

Friday
"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (4 p.m., NBC-17 in the Triangle)

Saturday
"Album Release and Birthday Bash Homecoming" at Raleigh's Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek (11 a.m.)

Sunday Oct. 9
Scotty's 18th birthday

For more coverage of Scotty McCreery, including stories and photos related to the time he's spending in Garner now, visit our Scotty Watch page.

With his first CD and his 18th birthday arriving next week, "American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery is planning a big hometown bash and a series of TV performances.

Scotty will be giving a concert at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 8. The next day, Oct. 9, is Scotty's 18th birthday.

The "Album Release and Birthday Bash Homecoming" will feature a performance from Scotty and his band, plus a question-and-answer session with the audience.

The performance will come just a few days after Scotty's CD, "Clear As Day," is released on Tuesday. In fact, fans who bring a copy of the CD to Walnut Creek will be able to get themselves and a guest in free. The News & Observer's N&O Zone for subscribers also will have tickets available soon.

"The X-Factor"
Wednesday, 8 p.m. on Fox 

Yes, "The X-Factor" is a lot like "American Idol."

But based on the 12-minute presentation reel made available by Fox (the same network that airs "Idol"), it's like someone (Simon Cowell) took "American Idol" and revamped it, making it totally fresh and exciting.

The similarities between the shows are pretty obvious: "The X-Factor" is a singing competition show and two of the judges are Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. The biggest difference is that there's no age limit for the contestants. Also, groups can compete. And the first time the judges (Cowell, Abdul, former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, and former Chairman of Island Def Jam L.A. Reid) see the contestants, the singers are on a stage with full musical backup and a big, live audience. But even though the performers have presumably already made it through a round or two of auditions to get the spot before judges, that doesn't mean there aren't also some clunkers and weirdos (because they know we like that stuff too).