Jimmy Fallon signs on with Tonight Show through 2021

NBC has locked in comedian Jimmy Fallon as host ofThe Tonight Show for six more years through 2021, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said on Thursday.

Fallon, 40, took over NBC's flagship late night show in February 2014 from Jay Leno, bringing in a younger audience and broadening the scope of the chat show with sketches and celebrity games.

The Tonight Show is currently the top-rated late night talk show on U.S. television with an average audience of 3.8 million people. It also has largest share of viewers in the time slot in the 18 to 49 age group most sought by advertisers.

Greenblatt called Fallon "the face of NBC in a lot of ways."

'The Tonight Show has always been an institution, but he's remade it into a destination for the largest audience anywhere in late night," Greenblatt added in a statement.

Fallon launched his career on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

NBC is a unit of Comcast Corp.