Jimmy Fallon's jittery 'Late Night' debut scores strong early rating for NBC

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Looking a little green

Jimmy Fallon was clearly nervous during his debut performance as host of NBC's "Late Night," but the comedian avoided major stumbles and garnered a strong opening-night rating.

Fallon's premiere drew a 2.3 in the metered-market household ratings -- NBC's highest Monday "Late Night" rating in the overnights in more than three years, and up 35% from Conan O'Brien's average in the time period (1.7) this season.

The comedian's debut (several clips below) was also higher rated than Craig Ferguson's debut in 2005 on CBS (1.8) and Jimmy Kimmel's bow in 2003 on ABC (2.0). In fact, Fallon had the highest-rated late-night debut of any talk show since 2002, when ABC put on "UpClose" (Ted Koppel's interview show that replaced "Politically Incorrect").

Fallon also beat Ferguson (who had Paris Hilton as his guest) head-to-head last night by 35%. Kimmel, whose second half overlaps with "Late Night," pulled an extremely high 2.5 rating thanks to a visit from "The Bachelor" star Jason Mesnick right after the show's heavily watched finale ("Bachelor" finale ratings here).

Ferguson has typically drawn a 1.6 on Mondays and Kimmel a 1.5. O'Brien's 1993 premiere (which is arguably from a different late-night ratings era) drew a 3.8.

Fallon performed a monologue that EW called "ultra-ordinary -- one liners about President Obama and the deficit that sounded like material Jay Leno's writers had faxed over from L.A," and did a segment called "Lick It for $10," where audience members came onstage to lick objects such as a goldfish bowl.

Robert De Niro was Fallon's first guest, who played along during a scripted exchange that joked about the actor's reputation as a difficult interview (why would producers book somebody with a reputation as a difficult interview as Fallon's first guest?). Then there was a Fallon's frequent "Saturday Night Live" sketch partner, Justin Timberlake, for a "Barry Gibb Talk Show" redux.

"Sweaty, tense, uptight, nervous, wound-up, keyed up -- pick an adjective," wrote the Chicago Tribune. While THR said it was "a typically stiff debut that nonetheless displays the host's charm and potential." But remember: Even Ferguson said not to judge Fallon based on his first night.

(UPDATE: Fallon's second night strong too)

Fallon also had a segment called "Slow Jammin' the News":

Here's Fallon trying to appeal to blond mothers from Connecticut:

Here's one sketch with De Niro:

JT:

Some sample Fallon monologue jokes:

-- "As you know New York City was hit with a huge snowstorm. And I woke up this morning and said 'please let it be a snow day.' Not even a delay. Nothing."

-- "I've been getting so much encouragement. Last night, Rush Limbaugh called me up and said he wants me to fail. That's so nice of him. He didn't even have to."

-- "The good news -- President Obama announced that he plans to bring the troops home from Iraq in 18 months. The troops actually responded and said, 'Thank you, but the economy's better over here.' "

-- "In California, a 16-year-old boy had sex with his 24-year-old teacher. Traumatizing. Doctors are saying it will take years of therapy just to wipe the smile off his face."

-- "Despite the recession, Microsoft is planning to open new stores to compete with Apple. Microsoft says they'll be just like Apple stores except the staff will freeze when you ask them a question."