Yesterday, Fox News Channel lost their biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, and cancelled one of the top-rated TV shows on cable, The O’Reilly Factor. Back in March 2015, it was reported that the series had spent 60 consecutive quarters as number one in the 25-54 demographic.
O’Reilly’s firing came less than three weeks after The New York Times reported that O’Reilly and Fox had over the course of the past 15 years, paid out nearly $13 million to settle five cases of sexual and other harassment against the host. Following the news, as many as 90 advertisers pulled their commercials from The O’Reilly Factor. It’s unclear if they pulled their spots from the cable channel entirely or just shifted them to other Fox News programs.
O’Reilly announced he was going on a two-week vacation and would return on April 24th. After investigating the allegations, Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced yesterday that O’Reilly would not be returning to the cable channel.
Here’s O’Reilly’s statement regarding his dismissal:
Over the past 20 years at Fox News I have been extremely proud to launch and lead one of the most successful news programs in history, which has consistently informed and entertained millions of Americans and significantly contributed to building Fox into the dominant news network in television. It is tremendously disheartening that we part ways due to completely unfounded claims. But that is the unfortunate reality many of us in the public eye must live with today.
I will always look back on my time with Fox with great pride in the unprecedented success we achieved and with my deepest gratitude to all my dedicated viewers. I wish only the best for Fox News Channel.
Deadline obtained a copy of Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch’s memo to Fox News staffers:
Dear Colleagues:
I would like to address questions about Bill O’Reilly’s future at Fox News. After a thorough and careful review of allegations against him, the Company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Mr. O’Reilly will not return to the Fox News Channel.
This decision follows an extensive review done in collaboration with outside counsel.
By ratings standards, Bill O’Reilly is one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news. In fact, his success by any measure is indisputable. Fox News has demonstrated again and again the strength of its talent bench. We have full confidence that the network will continue to be a powerhouse in cable news. Please see attached for our new programming line-up.
Most importantly, we want to underscore our consistent commitment to fostering a work environment built on the values of trust and respect.
I understand how difficult this has been for many of you. Thank you for your hard work, patience, and for the great job you all do delivering news and opinion to millions of Americans whose trust you earn every day. I look forward to even more success in the coming years.
Best,
Rupert Murdoch
What do you think? Do you think that O’Reilly should have been fired from Fox News? Do you think this move will help or hurt the channel? If you are a viewer, will you still watch Fox News?
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This hack would only be on Faux News as no real news organization would take him seriously. Glad he’s gone. BTW, he gets $25 M for “agreeing to leave”. Not bad for a hack who lied that he received a Peabody award.
He received more than he deserved. He has been capitalizing on being offensive for too long.
Rachael Maddow, please uncover the dirt on O’Reilly. You are our only hope for getting the truth … even though you probably wouldn’t know sexual harassment, God forbid, if it hit you in the past.
MADCOW is your only hope for the truth? Madcow is one of the most Racist liberals out there! She doesn’t like this country. She would let in every single Illegal Alien in the world. She wouldn’t have them vetted, but she would make sure that they are all registered to vote Democratic. She lies constantly, and everything is Donald Trump’s fault. She never said anything nasty about Lying Cooked Hillary, even when the truth came out about her.
“Madcow”, I like that! I stopped watching CNN about 10 years ago and now I guess it’s time to shut off FOX and get news from the radio.
You are kidding, I hope. Rachael Maddow couldn’t find DIRT if she were sitting in a garden and yet no matter how much actual proof of her biased reports (like the President not paying taxes when he actually paid $38,000,000). This country is going down the drain because TRUTH has been redefined, just like many other words have been by young people that don’t care about truth!
“no real news organization” that’s your problem GaLiberal you live in a dream world where you think there ARE real news stations! THERE ARE NO UNBIASED NEWS STATIONS! Truth has been replaced by deluded peoples ideas and actual lies. Most of today’s young don’t know or do they care about truth!
NO! And I would like to see the list of advertisers that pulled their funding from Fox News. The trail will lead to the hit men (women) that went after him. All Americans should take heed of what happened to Bill O’Reilly and stop this kind of character assignation. This is the kind of thing that happens in “Third World Countries,” but I guess that is where we are as a country…
Good idea but I don’t think you ever will. the shame of the matter is those who can only watch cable or satellite HAVE TO PAY ridiculous money to be forced to watch the commercials along with the garbage reality shows and all the other crap that has been replacing shows that were good and that people liked watching.
SOON MEN AND WOMAN WILL NOT BE ALLOW TO TALK IN WORK PLACE.!! NO . HE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FIRED.!!
Yea, calling black women “dark chocolate” isn’t offensive at all. Fox covered for him for many years. This time they didn’t cover for him.
There has been a long list of women making sexual misconduct statements about Fox News already- even within the last year or so…They really can’t cover up everything for ever, even if it is a major personality, and this is far from the first time Bill ‘O has been under fire for all of this teenage behavior, as if a famous gazillionaire needs to hit on women at work to get female attention, especially in Midtown Manhattan…
I don’t watch EVERY showing of the show (apparently YOU do). I haven’t heard the reference to chocolate by Bill, Light or dark.
Didn’t you forget the word “allegedly” . I looked it up and sorry to correct you but what I read was her complaint alleged the he said “Hot chocolate” not “Dark chocolate” but I guess accuracy doesn’t matter.
I think Fox made a huge mistake firing Mr. O’reilly. He has had good commentary for many years. This never should have happened!
Absolutely not–Fox will loose many viewers including self
Good. Two for the price of one.
FOX made a big mistake. I don’t know if the sons are politically correct or Liberal or what? Are they trying to make FOX into a Liberal type network, like the despicable MSNBC or CNN? Who will call out Rachel Madcow or any of the people who say ridiculous things without any substantiation on MSNBC and CNN? It was really stupid move.
You mean like the “ridiculous things without any substantiation” that Faux News and O’Lielly spewed out on an hourly basis?
Mr. O’Reilly’s show was one of a very few that DID REPORT THE TRUTH and wasn’t so damned racist.
you mean like CNN does?
He should not have been fired. He is the only reason we subscribe to Fox News His show had so much variety, and also, he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, especially for veterans.
It is about time. He is not special he should have been fired a long time ago. Good ridden.
You need to stop the autocorrect. To be correct it is “good riddance”. But he must have been special to be in the top place for 25-44 years olds for 25 years. I do not believe the sexual harassment claims of the TEMPORARY AGENCY worker. She was trying to get money. Since she was getting interviewed by “The View” she obviously got her lawsuit thrown out–she would have had a non-disclosure agreement for the settlement. If she did get a settlement, she is probably going to have to pay back her settlement for violating a non-disclosure agreement.
I watched every night and will miss him .
I agree Ames. But you really should give amy a break. Many including myself make an occasional typing error. could be using two fingers is my problem.
This was a mistake, and YES, he was mostly UNBIASED, especially compared to MSNBC and CNN, who lean so far to the left that they fall off the planet. I hope FOX puts a much more conservative person in his slot so we can have more of the biased hatred that we get on CNN and MSNBC. Now that Tomi Lahren is available, she would be an excellent choice to replace Bill. Moving The Five up to 9 pm as a permanent replacement isn’t going to do it.
One’s view of left or right is dependent on where they are. Same with how one views “unbiased”. Faux News and O’Lielly loved the far right because they are gullible and so easy to outrage. They needed no facts; just memes that spun up the far right.
I’m sorry GaLiberal haven’t got those backwards. All I have seen since Nov 8, 2016 is the far left losing it, crying, refusing to except reality wanting reality to be what they want not what it is.
Unbiased?? What the heck is George smoking?
HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED. WE WILL MISS HOIS INFORMATIVE AND UNBIASED PROGRAM
I love O’Reilly he is Fox News I’ll follow him wherever he goes. I am female from BRONX, NY and my friends feel the same
Are these ALLEGATIONS or are they proven beyond doubt? Hired Liberal Soros soldiers are smearing Conservatives and creating Chaos….just by A Few Spoken Words.
We love Bill, but Mr. Murdoch – NOT so much YOU. Cave all the time and Fox will be destroyed, bye bye.
I agree Eva! Bill was unbiased and tried to portray news via best journalism practices! It’s time someone stood up to ALLEGATIONS which were not proven as facts before taking premature actions! I have been a loyal fan of FOX News, and virtually watched the channel all day long. Not going to be so in the future, if this organization chooses to cave in to faux news which seems to be the mainstay of the other, more liberal news networks. FOX, you have made a grave mistake in taking this action. You will see your ratings plummet and your advertisers… Read more »
I believe that he should still be on the show. I believe that Fox will lose a lot of views, male and female. If he is innocent of these charges, which I believe, he should fight because these kind of people will keep coming back for more money and attention until someone actually stands up. Your family will support you.
I am a viewer. I am female. I am Republican and No, I won’t watch as much as I have in the past. O’ Reilly Factor was the show I watched the most.
Ditto. There goes Fox. Only Dobbs and Hannity left to watch.
He absolutely should not have been fired !!! His program was the one we turned to to find the truth in the news….he made Fox news what it was…Number one
The truth?
Hilarious. Just shows how many gullible people there are in the US right now and how much the education system is failing right now.
The truth?
He was one of the biggest bs artists out there….