• by Wayne Friedman , March 3, 2009

NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" debuted on Monday night to the best numbers in three years for the franchise.

Fallon is taking over for Conan O'Brien, who moves to "The Tonight Show" chair later this spring. The former "SNL" alum grabbed a Nielsen preliminary 2.3 household rating/8 share. This is 35% above the season's current 1.7 household rating average.

The show's numbers were higher than CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in preliminary results--in keeping with O'Brien's recent ratings results against the competition.

"Late Late Show" earned a 1.7/6 despite a guest appearance by Paris Hilton; "Kimmel" took a 2.3/8 versus Fallon's 2.7/9 in the half-hour, 12:30-1 a.m., where the shows run against each other. "Kimmel" featured a guest appearance by Jason Mesnick, "The "Bachelor" contestant.

By way of comparison, Fallon's debut was higher than other recent late-night talk-show startups: CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in 2005 earned a 1.8/7; the regular-slot debut of ABCs "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2003 and the 1999 bow of CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn" both earned a 1.7/7.

Earlier in the evening, ABC dominated with the huge finale for the revived reality show "The Bachelor," which earned a massive 5.5/11 among 18-49 viewers and an even bigger--and more eye-opening--6.7/16 for "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose."

ABC averaged a 5.8/14 on the night. CBS, with its comedies holding its own in the face of some big competition, scored a 4.1/10, good for second place. CBS was up week-to-week, averaging a 2.7/7, when it ran mostly reruns.

Fox's "24" seem to suffer a bit. The first hour of the two hours of the show took in a 3.1/8 and then rose to a 3.5/8. The show earned a 3.8/9 the week before from its 9 p.m. showing. Fox ended the night at a 3.3/8.

NBC's strong Monday contender "Heroes" also slipped to a 3.2/7 from a 3.4/8. NBC ended Monday with a 2.7/6. Univision was next with a 1.6/4; CW earned a 0.5/1.