Barack Obama's appearance on US cable channel Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart pulled in the series' highest ever rating on Wednesday night.

Obama's interview, which aired between 11pm and 11.30pm, EST, pulled in 3.6 million viewers in the US - beating the show's previous high when the Democrat presidential candidate's wife Michelle appeared on October 8 by 600,000 viewers.

This was the first time topical comedy talkshow had averaged more than 3 million viewers.

The Daily Show's sister series The Colbert Report, which aired straight after between 11.30pm and midnight, also pulled in its highest ever rating, attracting US 2.4 million viewers.

Wednesday's episode of the show, in which Stephen Colbert parodies the tub-thumping excesses of Fox News presenters such as Bill O'Reilly, saw him cross party lines and endorsing Senator Obama for president.

The Colbert Report topped its previous high - also on October 8 - by 400,000 viewers.

More4 broadcasts The Daily Show in the UK, while The Colbert Report is aired on FX.

More4's showing of Obama's appearance on The Daily Show pulled in 125,000 on More4 between 8.30pm and 9pm last night, October 29, with a further 11,000 watching on More4 +1 an hour later.

Meanwhile, Obama's 30-minute infomercial on Wednesday night, which aired across seven US networks including CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision, MSNBC and BET at 8pm, EST, was seen by a total of 33.6 million viewers.

The seven networks usually pull in a combined average of 30.3 million viewers in the slot.

US entertainment trade journal Hollywood Reporter reported that the Nielsen ratings body estimated that roughly 71% of viewers were white, 17% were black and 15% were Hispanic. (The Hispanic designation concerns what language the viewer speaks, meaning viewers can be white and Hispanic in Nielsen tallies.)

Obama's 30-minute pitch was the first national pre-election special since presidential candidate Ross Perot bought similar airtime in 1996, which pulled in a total of 22 million viewers.

NBC pulled in the highest single rating with 9.8 million viewers, while CBS had 8.6 million and Fox 7.1 million.

ABC - the only major US broadcaster not to air the ad - saw its drama Pushing Daisies tie with CBS for third place with 6.7 million viewers. The CW's America's Next Top Model gained 3.9 million.

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