NEW YORK >> The HLN network reached its biggest audience ever when the verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial was announced.

The Nielsen Co. said 4.58 million people were watching HLN between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday. That’s the largest audience that HLN has gathered since it began in 1982 as CNN Headline News.

In prime-time, the network had an average of 2.12 million people, its biggest audience since Sept. 11, 2001. Nielsen said Wednesday that Nancy Grace’s prime-time show reached 2.9 million people, its largest audience ever.

Grace, who is convinced Anthony killed her daughter Caylee and reacted with disgust to the acquittal, has spent hours on the case since the 2-year-old girl went missing. HLN aired the Anthony trial, seeing its ratings soar in June.