Daily Show Hearts Obama

Presidential contender's appearance leads Jon Stewart's fake newscast to biggest audience: 3.6 mil viewers

By Joal Ryan Oct 30, 2008 10:48 PMTags

It can't be denied: Barack Obama is spreading the wealth around.

On the same night his infomercial boosted the broadcast network audience, the presidential contender's appearance on The Daily Show led Comedy Central's 12-year-old fake newscast to its biggest audience ever: 3.6 million viewers.

The episode breaks The Daily Show's old viewership record set all of three weeks ago when Jon Stewart's featured guest was Obama's wife, Michelle Obama

Barack Obama also boosted last night's The Colbert Report, which, like its Daily Show lead-in, scored its most-watched episode ever (2.4 million).  While Obama didn't appear on Colbert, he figured prominently as host Stephen Colbert bestowed his endorsement to the Illinois senator.  

Obama rival John McCain, meanwhile, did all right by Larry King. McCain's appearance last night on King's CNN show averaged 2.3 million, the network said, up about half-million viewers from its previous Wednesday.