The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Staying Awake (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

Taking over “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno on Monday, Fallon drew a robust 11.3 million viewers.

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Jimmy Fallon debuted on 'The Tonight Show' with 11.3 million viewers, hitting the highest ratings in five years.

That’s the biggest “Tonight” audience since, well, Leno’s Feb. 6 farewell was watched by 14.6 million. Still, Fallon’s debut was the largest “Tonight” audience in five years and almost three times this season’s average of 3.9 million.

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Kim Kardashian (right) was in Jimmy Fallon's parade of A-listers as part of his 'Tonight Show' debut, which took months of planning.

Neither Fallon nor NBC was commenting publicly Tuesday, saying they are now focused on doing a new show every night.

But an executive at a rival network offered a hat tip to the new boss.

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Will Smith with host Jimmy Fallon during the 'Evolution of Hip Hop Dancing' skit Monday.

“This isn’t Conan 2.0,” the exec said, referring to NBC’s failed experiment to replace Leno with Conan O’Brien. “He has the broad appeal ‘Tonight’ has always had and needed.”

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Joan Rivers graces the stage of 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' following a 28-year exile first established by Johnny Carson.

Fallon’s debut required months of preparation for the single hour of late-night television. To pull it off, celebrities crowded in with civilians, U2 fans stood in hallways for hours, Joan Rivers reemerged from exile and Lorne Michaels conceived of a brilliant rooftop concert that almost required NASA engineers to execute.

In a studio so freshly completed that guests described the dominant aroma as “new carpet,” Fallon ushered in what one NBC source said he hopes will be “a long period when the show only makes headlines for content.”

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An NBC executive promises Jimmy Fallon's hosting gig is not 'Conan 2.0,' referring to when Conan O'Brien was moved to 'The Tonight Show' gig until Jay Leno was given back the job.

Rivers said she hoped to banish one old headline — her 28-year exile for the crime of offending Johnny Carson.

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Jimmy Fallon performs with members of The Ragtime Gals on Tuesday night. 

Her return Monday was brief, playing a small role in a multicelebrity parade, but she said it still tasted sweet.

“About time,” she told the Daily News. “I’ve been sitting in a taxi outside NBC with the meter running.”

Rivers had been a “Tonight” show regular — and then-host Carson’s permanent fill-in — when, in 1986, she accepted an offer to do her own show on Fox. Carson never spoke to her again and barred her from his stage.

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