The first episode with Fallon as host reportedly drew 11.3 million viewers, says Variety.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon completely dominated Monday night with a 3.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 11.31 million viewers overall.
It is the third highest audience ever for the show, only surpassed by the final episode with Jay Leno hosting earlier this month (14.6 million viewers) and Conan O’Briens debut in 2009 (11.9 million viewers).
These amazing numbers mean that, as least on his debut, Fallon managed to elevate Tonight Show‘s audience about 182% from Leno’s latest numbers, which were of 4 million, averagely.
Nobody expected Jimmy Fallon to be able to obtain the same numbers that Jay Leno did on his final episode as host, but it was still a nice surprise for NBC to see the numbers rise as high as they did last night.
Fallon’s debut included Will Smith and U2 as guests and cameos with Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Robert De Niro.