Why is __new__ not being called on my Python class?

Question

I have a class defined like so:

class Client():
    def __new__(cls):
        print "NEW"
        return cls

    def __init__(self):
        print "INIT"

When I use it, I get the following output:

cl = Client()
# INIT

__new__ is not being called. Why?

Answer 1

Having read your answer, I improve it with

class Client(object):
    def __new__(cls):
        print "NEW"
        return super(Client, cls).__new__(cls)
    def __init__(self):
        print "INIT"

so that c = Client() outputs

NEW
INIT

as intended.