Bruce Jenner interview garners 17 million viewers – highest ratings for “20/20″ in 15 years

Bruce Jenner’s interview with Diane Sawyer on Friday earned ABC’s 20/20 its highest ratings in 15 years.

The two-hour program garnered 16.9 million viewers – one of the biggest audience on a Friday night for a non-sports special since 2003.

The Jenner interview was the highest-rated for a 20/20 episode since a 2000 interview with John and Patsy Ramsey, parents of murder victim JonBenet Ramsey.

Most encouraging for ABC is that the show scored a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49 which is the demographic most coveted by advertisers.

The interview also inspired 972,000 tweets, ranking it as the most social Friday telecast of all time (excluding sports events), according to Nielsen Social.