Logo

Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ Not Slowing Down — in Fact, the Ratings Picked Up Thursday Night

Feb 21, 2014  •  Post A Comment

Jimmy Fallon’s premiere week on NBC’s "Tonight Show" has been a ratings home run, and NBC announced that Thursday’s show was the best yet for any of his post-premiere-night installments.

"Thursday’s ‘Tonight’ averaged a 2.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 7.688 million viewers overall, according to fast-official ‘live plus same day’ ratings from Nielsen Media Research, as ‘Tonight’ continues to attract strong sampling through Fallon’s premiere week," NBC reported. "While ratings drop-offs are common through late-night premiere weeks, Fallon has generated growth through the last two nights in adults 18-49. Thursday’s 2.6 rating is up 8% versus the 2.4 for Wednesday night and up 13% versus the 2.3 for the night before that, making it the show’s highest rating since Monday’s 3.8."

Thursday night’s show included two top A-List guests: First Lady Michelle Obama and comic actor Will Farrell. "SNL" vets Fallon and Farrell, along with Obama, all participated in a skit about a TV show called "Ew," pretending to be teenage girls.

Other than the Jay Leno finale on Feb. 6, the 7.688 million total viewers for the Feb. 20 broadcast represents “Tonight’s” biggest number in almost five years — since President Obama appeared on the March 19, 2009, show and drew 14.634 million, NBC announced.

Bolstered by NBC’s Olympics coverage, Fallon — who has been starting at midnight following Olympics and local news — has been dominating the late-night ratings, chalking up numbers that top those of rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel combined.

"Despite its later start time, the Feb. 20 ‘Tonight Show’ outperformed the combined results in total viewers of CBS’s ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ (2.689 million) and ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ (2.412 million) by 51% (7.688 million vs. a combined 5.101 million)," NBC reported. "In adults 18-49, ‘Tonight’s’ 2.6 rating nearly doubled the combined results of ‘Late Show’ (0.7) and ‘Kimmel’ (0.7)."

Thumbnail image for tonight show starring jimmy fallon-title 2.jpg

2 Comments

  1. why is anyone watching this? its the same awful show he did @ 12:35!

  2. Its the Chicago way….dead people are voting!

Leave a Reply to Spatcher Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)