SURE JAN: Bill O’Reilly Abruptly Announces “Vacation”

Variety reports:

Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel presence in recent days has sparked social-media outrage and advertiser defections. If he goes off the air for a while, will calm return?

The popular Fox News Channel host raised that very question when he told viewers during the last few minutes of his “O’Reilly Factor” broadcast on Tuesday night that he would take a few days off as part of a pre-planned vacation even as controversy swirled around him. He explained that he often takes vacation around the start of spring. “We all need R&R. Put it to good use,” he told viewers. He is expected to return to the air April 24.

Executives at Fox News will no doubt see whether the move gives the network some breathing room. O’Reilly has been under scrutiny since April 1, when the New York Times detailed the host’s settlements of harassment allegations with five women totaling at least $13 million. In a statement, O’Reilly denied wrongdoing and said his high profile in TV made him a “target for those who would harm me and my employer.”

Variety notes that the number of ads during O’Reilly’s show plummeted from an average of 33 to just seven on Friday’s show.

UPDATE: New York Magazine calls bullshit.



According to four network sources, there’s talk inside Fox News that tonight’s show could be his last. Lawyers for the law firm Paul, Weiss, hired last summer by 21st Century Fox to investigate Roger Ailes, are currently doing a “deep dive” investigation into O’Reilly’s behavior. They’re focused now on sexual harassment claims by O’Reilly guest Wendy Walsh after she reported her claims via the company’s anonymous hotline. Fox News co-president Bill Shine has been working hard to keep O’Reilly, sources said. But O’Reilly’s future is in the hands of the Murdochs. “It’s up to the family,” the senior Fox News staffer said. The Murdochs are presently divided over how to handle it.