Night three of the Jimmy Fallon era for NBC’s "Tonight Show" continued the "Saturday Night Live" alum’s strong ratings start — presumably helped by NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia.

Citing Nielsen Media Research data, NBC reported: "Wednesday’s 5.2 in metered-market households is up 79% versus the show’s 2.9 season-to-date average [live plus same day]. Note that ‘Tonight’ has been delivering one of its strongest seasons in years and was up 7% season to date in metered-market households through Feb. 9 (2.9 vs. 2.7)."

As the show has all week, Wednesday’s installment of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” had a special midnight start time after late local news and Olympics coverage.

Last night’s show was down slightly from the Tuesday program. "Wednesday’s ‘Tonight’ finished within a tenth of a rating point of the prior night’s results both in metered-market households (5.2 vs. 5.3) and in 18-49 rating in the Local People Meters (2.2 vs. 2.3)," NBC reported.

Even with a later start time, Wednesday’s “Tonight Show” beat the combined household ratings for CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (2.2/6) and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (1.6/4) by 37% (5.2 vs. a combined 3.8), NBC noted.