Exasperated Steve Kornacki awkwardly apologizes to audience in cringey viral video from election night

NBC election guru Steve Kornacki had a very long election evening Tuesday that was capped off by a cringe-inducing coverage collapse.

Kornacki is known for his energizing staccato analysis of polling, but Tuesday's election was especially vexing for the fan-favorite pundit.

'I want you to know I hate, hate doing this to you, because I know you're here for the results.'

At one point he debated whether he had time to go to the bathroom before another tranche of data arrived to change a pivotal election.

"I have to ... do you know what I'm saying?" he said while gesturing.

"Well, I don't want anybody to go anywhere. I will run. It'll take two minutes! It's just I, you know, you understand, but I don't want — something just came in!" he said.

"What was it? [Francesca] Hong took the lead! Oh my! I almost went to the bathroom for that! OK!"

Many viewers lifted that moment from the network's "Kornacki Cam" coverage on YouTube.

The culmination of Kornacki's election divination shenanigans came when he apologized to the audience for ending his coverage after the results from Wisconsin were delayed by a massive error.

"We're kind of indefinitely waiting for them to get their act together here and get the sticks and bring them back and go on. And we got folks here who are working real late, and I don't think we wanna, you know, keep me here to, um, this could go 90 minutes. And it's 90 minutes of me saying, 'Have you heard of any other athletes running for Congress?'" he said as the night segued into morning.

"I want you to know I hate, hate doing this to you, because ... I know you're here for results," Kornacki added.

The blank look on a clearly exasperated Kornacki peppered with cringey broadcast silence was described by one social media user as the "most awkward 3.5 minutes of live air in NBC News history."

Video of that segment went viral on social media.

RELATED: MSNBC viewers spew hatred at Steve Kornacki for saying Walz wouldn't help Democrat ticket

In another video from a week ago, Kornacki accidentally spilled his water bottle onto his computer and short-circuited the monitor .

Despite the bizarre moments, or maybe because of them, Kornacki continued to be popular among election watchers.

"I love him. He’s the best. Never not watching Kornacki cam on an election night," responded one user.

"Kornacki is truly an amazing human being! Love him!' said another.

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