It's the candidates, late at night

It wasn't your imagination -- presidential candidates really did appear on late-night comedy shows far more often this election.

Candidates made 110 appearances -- nearly four times the 25 times during the 2004 campaign, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University in Virginia.

Fifty of the appearances with David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, or Steven Colbert, came before a primary vote was even cast, the Associated Press reports.

"Candidates have figured out that you can reach voters through entertainment venues even better than news," Robert Lichter, who heads the Center for Media and Public Affairs, told the AP.

Republican John McCain made 17 appearances, though one he cancelled with Letterman during a key part of the campaign came back to haunt him as Letterman acidly and relentlessly made fun of him until McCain returned to say he had messed up.

President-elect Barack Obama had 15 appearances, third behind Republican Mike Huckabee, who now has a talk show of his own on Fox News Channel.

Among the shows, Leno featured 22 candidate appearances, Stewart had 21, Letterman had 19, and Colbert had 15.