Seth Meyers' 'Late Night' debut draws biggest audience since 2005

[February 26, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) — Comedian Seth Meyers' debut as the host of NBC's "Late Night" talk show on Monday pulled in about 3.4 million viewers, the show's highest numbers overall as well as in the 18-49 age group coveted by advertisers since 2005, the television network said on Tuesday.

With a mixture of banter and jokes and guests comedian Amy Poehler and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Meyers managed to top the premiere audience numbers of his predecessor Jimmy Fallon, who left the show to replace Jay Leno as host of NBC's flagship late-night program "The Tonight Show" a week ago.

Fallon attracted 2.8 million viewers when he took over "Late Night" in March 2009, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Meyers and Fallon both starred on the comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live" before joining the late night talk shows.

At 40, Meyers is the oldest host in the history of the Comcast Corp-owned NBC network show and follows in the footsteps of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Eric Walsh)

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