O’Reilly advertisers risk reputation, but viewers remain
While dozens of brands have said they’re pulling ads from Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” because of harassment allegations against its host, others remain to court the biggest audience on cable television news.
An ad boycott against Bill O’Reilly quickly took shape following The New York Times story last weekend that five women had been paid a total of $13 million to settle their accusations of sexual misconduct or abusive behavior against him. On Thursday, more than 40 companies had said they weren’t running commercials on O’Reilly’s show, according to CNN, which has maintained a count.
One of the companies that hasn’t abandoned O’Reilly is Angie’s List. The company has a contract with Fox that doesn’t specify which program its ads will air on, and has no plans to change its strategy, said Cheryl Reed, spokeswoman for the company that offers crowd-sourced reviews of local businesses.
“We place ads across a wide spectrum of venues intending to reach as many viewers/listeners/ readers as possible without taking a position on the viewpoints of the venues themselves,” Reed said Wednesday.
It’s a large audience to bypass, and there’s little evidence that the allegations and the $13 million in settlements paid out to five women have impacted O’Reilly’s viewership. His show drew 3.76 million viewers on Monday and 3.65 million on Tuesday, the Nielsen company said. On average, his show drew 3.98 million viewers nightly for the first three months of 2017, his largest quarterly average in the show’s two-decade history.