The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)

Advertiser­s flee O’Reilly — but viewers stay loyal

- By David Bauder

Show averaged 3.71 million viewers over five nights last week, up 12 percent from the week before.

NEW YORK >> Advertiser­s are fleeing Bill O’Reilly’s “no spin zone” on Fox News Channel, but viewers are remaining loyal.

“The O’Reilly Factor” averaged 3.71 million viewers over five nights last week, the Nielsen company said Tuesday. That’s up 12 percent from the 3.31 million viewers he averaged the week before and up 28 percent compared to the same week in 2016.

O’Reilly’s show averaged just under 4 million viewers for the first three months of 2017, his biggest quarter ever in the show’s 20-year history.

“Controvers­y is a breeding ground for interest,” said Marc Berman, editor in chief of The Programmin­g Insider. “So people who otherwise might not have seen his show recently are curious. People might want to see if he addresses the subject. If the ratings were not up, I would have been surprised.”

Some five-dozen companies have said they wouldn’t advertise on O’Reilly’s show following a report in The New York Times on April 2 that five women had been paid a total of $13 million to keep quiet about harassment allegation­s against cable television news’ most popular personalit­y. O’Reilly has denied any wrongdoing.

It has left his show with a more unusual array of commercial­s than you’d typically see for a popular program — like Monday night’s ad for a device that clears ear wax.

The amount of advertisin­g time by paying customers on “The O’Reilly Factor” has been cut by more than half since the Times report, according to an analysis issued Tuesday by Kantar Media. In the month prior to the story, his show averaged 14 minutes, 32 seconds an hour of ads by paying national clients, Kantar said. By last Friday, the paid advertisin­g time had bottomed out at 4 minutes, 10 seconds, before rebounding to 7:10 on Monday.

His sponsors lately have been leaning toward more opportunis­tic direct-mail marketers or other small budget brands, the company said.

O’Reilly had five of the seven most-watched programs on cable television last week, and he more than doubled the average audiences for his rivals on CNN and MSNBC combined. But he was topped by a teammate: Sean Hannity’s show last Thursday, less than an hour after it was announced that President Trump had taken military action in Syria, had nearly 5 million viewers.

 ?? RICHARD DREW — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE ?? Host Bill O’Reilly of “The O’Reilly Factor”
RICHARD DREW — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Host Bill O’Reilly of “The O’Reilly Factor”

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