It turns out that Jimmy Fallon’s first week at The Tonight Show succeeded even more than first thought. Nielsen released the “live plus three day” ratings yesterday, which included an additional two million people who watched the show via DVR playback. This totals Fallon’s premiere week audience at 10.42 million viewers, the largest audience for the venerable late night talk show since Johnny Carson’s final week in 1992 well before the age of DVR and next-day online viewing. Unsurprisingly, Fallon’s Tonight Show also raked in the youngest audience in the show’s history, shifting the median viewer age for the show from 58.1 to 52.6.
Jimmy Fallon’s First ‘Tonight Show’ Week Draws Biggest Audience Since Johnny Carson Left
