For now.

The real battle between these two American Idol finalists will go down in November, when each releases his debut CD.

But David Archuleta's first single, "Crush," has outperformed David Cook's initial song so far.

Archie's "Crush" debuted at number-two on the Hot 100 singles chart, a knockout blow to Cook's number-three bow in June with "The Time of My Life."

As a result, David A. is the first American Idol runner-up to out-rank the winner in head-to-head single competition since Clay Aiken outsold Ruben Studdard in 2003. And we all know how the future for those two artists turned out.

Stay tuned to see if Archuleta can have Aiken-like success in the future!

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.