No one should be surprised by this news. The Jeff Dunham Show last night broke Comedy Central ratings records by sucking in 7.9 million viewers between its series premiere at 9 pm and replays afterwards.

The show, a mix of Dunham’s ventriloquist stand-up act and field sketches (think Chappelle and Mencia show formats), drew 5.3 million total viewers in its first showing last night. As a result – again, no surprise here – Comedy Central had its highest rated night of television in 2009.

Why is all of this not surprising? Dunham is incredibly popular; he made Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list this year (clocking in at #89). He also had the highest grossing stand-up tour last year, has broken YouTube view records by garnering nearly 98 million views of his Achmed the Dead Terrorist routine and last year, Dunham had the highest rated Comedy Central special in history when 6.6 million people sat down to watch his Very Special Christmas Special.