Just how much of a difference does Taylor Swift make in late-night ratings? Based on her two appearances this week—on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday night and Late Night with Seth Meyers Wednesday—she remains the rare guest with the power to truly move the needle.
With Swift by his side on Monday, Oct. 6, Jimmy Fallon scored his highest audience for a regular (non-football) episode since Greg Gutfeld’s August visit, with 1.77 million total viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen Live+3 Day data. That’s up 44% versus the same day last week (Sept. 29).
Among viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18–49 demographic, Fallon’s growth was even more impressive: up 50%, from 161,000 last week to 242,000 this week—the show’s best demo performance for a regular episode since Feb. 5, 2025.
Meyers, according to Live+Same-Day data, drew 993,000 total viewers on Wednesday, Oct. 8—up 13% week over week—and 175,000 in the demo, up 27%. For Late Night, that marks its highest performance among younger viewers since January, and both numbers are likely to grow in the coming days as delayed-viewing data comes in.
Of course, with a younger-skewing pop powerhouse like Swift, her true superpower is online, where one clip from her Fallon appearance has already surpassed 20 million views on TikTok, while YouTube clips from both interviews have collectively generated millions more.
As we’ve reported, NBC isn’t done with Swift yet: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is set to air a special expanded edition of Fallon’s interview with Swift tonight. With numbers like these, it’s no wonder why.
