Long gone are the days of 55M people tuning in to see Johnny Carson’s final ever appearance hosting The Tonight Show.
However, Jimmy Fallon’s iteration of the venerable NBC series has reached its own milestone – becoming the first late-night show to reach 30M subscribers on YouTube.
“That is a crazy number,” said Fallon. “I’m so thankful for everyone who watches on TV but also online and subscribes to our channel, it means a lot to all of us so we’re very proud. Thank you very much.”
It highlights the changes in the medium with many people, particularly younger audiences choosing to watch clips of the late-night shows online, on YouTube and via social media rather than tune in at 11:30pm or 12:30am at night.
The Tonight Show’s closest rival in terms of YouTube subscribers is The Late Late Show with James Corden with 27.9M, highlighting how much that that these shows with viral segments and variety spots are watched in a non-linear way.
Elsewhere, Jimmy Kimmel Live! has 18.8M, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah has 10M, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has 8.94M and Late Night with Seth Meyers has 4.36M.
