Ben Affleck accepts the award for Best Director - Motion Picture for "Argo" on stage on at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California January 13, 2013, in this picture provided by NBC. [Photo/Agencies]

The Nielsen Co says Sunday's Golden Globes awards ceremony got a nice ratings bump over last year.

Related: 'Argo' scores double victory at Golden Globes

With Tina Fey and Amy Poehler handling host duties, the NBC telecast was seen by 19.7 million viewers. That's an audience growth of 2.8 million viewers (or 17 percent) over last year's show, which was hosted by Ricky Gervais.

It was the top-rated Globes in six years, according to national figures released Monday.

Related: Stars arrive for Hollywood's Golden Globes show

For the fourth year, the Globes were televised live to all time zones, and some western markets also carried an encore telecast following the live coverage, which began at 5 pm Pacific time.

NBC said the telecast is currently the season's most-watched awards program, topping the CMA Awards, Emmy Awards, American Music Awards and People's Choice Awards.

The Grammy Awards will be held Feb 10. The Academy Awards are Feb 24.

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