Fox gets lowest World Series Game 1 rating ever

6:53PM EDT October 25. 2012 - San Francisco's lopsided 8-3 win over Detroit in the World Series Game 1 wasn't a hit with TV viewers.

Fox drew 7.6% of U.S. households, down 13% from last year's comparable coverage of St. Louis-Texas in Game 1 and the lowest Game 1 ever. The previous low came for Game 1 of the St. Louis-Detroit Series opener in 2006, which drew 8% of U.S. households.

The Giants early lead obviously sent viewers channel-surfing. While ratings for prime time game usually build through the night, ratings for Game 1 peaked at 9-9:30 p.m. ET.

From 11-11:30 p.m. ET, the rating had drifted down to 7.5%.

Networks are trying to sort out whether heavy social media traffic during games can drive more viewers to broadcasts. But there wasn't a link Wednesday as Fox drew its record-low TV rating.

MLB says the game drew 813,000 social media comments, making it the second-most discussed MLB game on social media -- trailing only last year's World Series Game 6. And, according to data from the research firm Bluefin Labs, the games drew 79% more comments on Facebook and Twitter than the total for the next nine TV shows Wednesday that drew the most social media comments.