Number of human guests appearing on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson": more than 22,000
Number of animal guests: more than 212
Average nightly audience in 1962: 7.5 million
Average nightly audience in 1978: 17.3 million
Average nightly audience in 1991: 12 million (This decline is due to the fractionalization of the TV universe.)
Number of competing talk/variety shows Johnny clobbered over the years: 14
Approximate number of sponsors: 850
Number of commercials aired: more than 250,000
Number of people watching the wedding of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki in 1969 (according to A.C. Nielsen Co. data): 21.4 million
Amount a minute of advertising cost on the show in 1968: $17,200
Amount 30 seconds of advertising cost on the show in 1991: $35,000
Amount 30 seconds of advertising cost on Johnny's final show: $200,000
Salary that Johnny Carson earned as host of The Tonight Show in 1962: $100,000 a year
Salary that Johnny Carson earned in 1991: about $20 million a year
Amount per minute on the air that Carson earned in 1991: about $2,380
Percentage of NBC's total annual revenue accounted for by "The Tonight Show" in 1991: 15% ($60 million)
Estimated number of viewers who have watched Johnny host "The Tonight Show" over the years: 83 billion
Estimated number of viewers who joined Johnny for his final show on May 22, 1992: 23 million (according to the Associated Press)