"Welcome to 11:30, bitch," shouted Stephen Colbert after dumping a bucket of pennies on Jimmy Fallon, the new host of The Tonight Show on Monday. It was just one funny moment of many during Fallon's debut, which sparked a barrage of tweets from viewers.
But did Fallon's first episode as host garner more or less social buzz than predecessor Jay Leno's finale as The Tonight Show host? We already know, as far as ratings go, Leno's farewell on Feb. 6 attracted 14.64 million viewers compared with Fallon's 11.31 million pull Monday, though Fallon's debut is the show's second biggest audience since 2009, only behind Leno's exit. Both episodes trumped Conan O'Brien's 2010 opener (9.17 million).
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On Twitter, however, Fallon edged out Leno, according to data Nielsen SocialGuide shared with Mashable upon request. Roughly 79,900 unique accounts sent 157,600 tweets Monday night, amounting to 15.6 million Twitter impressions (number of times tweets were seen). For Leno's last broadcast, 52,400 sent 79,400 tweets, which resulted in 9.9 million impressions.
Fallon brought in the stars for his inaugural outing, particularly for a "$100 Tonight Show Bet" segment in which such celebrities as Robert De Niro, Lady Gaga, Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan, Colbert and more welcomed Fallon to his new gig. Watch it unfold in the video, below:
Fallon's first guests were Will Smith and U2. He has an impressive lineup left this week:
Tuesday, Feb. 18: Jerry Seinfeld, Kristen Wiig and Lady Gaga
Wednesday, Feb. 19: Bradley Cooper and Tim McGraw
Thursday, Feb. 20: First lady Michelle Obama, Will Ferrell and Arcade Fire
Friday, Feb. 21: Justin Timberlake
The first lady's appearance comes two years after she and Fallon participated in a tug-of-war in a Late Night With Jimmy Fallon clip taped in the White House. Barack Obama appeared as a guest on Leno in 2009, which became the only time a sitting president appeared on late-night TV.
Fallon said goodbye to Late Night over the weekend with a musical assist from the Muppets. Together, they sang The Band’s 1968 hit “The Weight."
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