With Friday’s telecast of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" delivering the show’s highest ratings since Monday’s series premiere, Fallon has generated strong viewer sampling throughout his week of post-Olympic telecasts.

For the full week, "Tonight" averaged 8.490 million viewers overall, making it the most-watched week of "The Tonight Show" in 20 years. To put that in perspective, it's the most-watched week since the week of the "Cheers" finale in May 1993. "Tonight" hit those numbers despite four of this week’s five telecasts being moved to midnight ET start times due to Olympic overruns. Adding time-shifted viewers make Fallon’s Feb. 17 premiere the top Monday ‘Tonight Show’ since 1992.
The 8.490 million viewers for the week is up 112% versus "Tonight’s" prior season-to-date average of 4.011 million through Feb. 9. And note that "Tonight" has been delivering one of its strongest seasons in years, with the 4.011 million average up 15% versus one year earlier and "Tonight’s" biggest audience through 20 weeks of the season in five years.