Fox News anchor, Bill O'Reilly, was recently exposed as having spent millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements that are related to accusations of sexual harassment. Despite the shocking news, the audience ratings for his show have only grown. On the other hand, more than 20 advertisers have pulled out of the spots for his show, "The O'Reilly Factor".
Sexual harassment scandal
In an investigative exposé published by the New York Times, it was revealed that Bill O'Reilly was accused of Sexual Harassment by five different women. The women, who claimed that O'Reilly harassed them or engaged in inappropriate behavior, have received $13 million in payouts.
The money was paid by either O'Reilly or Fox News and in exchange for the settlement, the women must not pursue litigation or speak about the accusations.
In 2004, the TV anchor paid $9 million to producer Andrea Mackris. Last year, he paid an additional $1.6 million to former on-air personality, Juliet Huddy. The New York Times discovered the other three women, two of which sued for sexual harassment and the other sued for verbal abuse. Wendy Walsh, a regular guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" told the Times that he invited her to go to his hotel suite after a dinner in 2013.
Ratings soar
The devoted viewers of O'Reilly's show have not been turned off by the scandal. On the contrary, the audience ratings have only grown due to public intrigue.
However, more than 20 advertisers have pulled spots from the show, which cost the Fox News network a lot of money. The network was recently involved in another scandal with former chief Roger Ailes, who was also accused of sexual assault.
On Tuesday, the show led in ratings with an average of 628,000 adults in the 25-54 age group, which is their target demographic.
This marks a 20 percent increase from last Tuesday. The anchor is yet to address the controversy on air, and we can assume that much of the viewership comes from the fact that people want to see if he will mention the scandal at all. US President Donald Trump has come to O'Reilly's defense, and declared in the Oval Office: "I don't think Bill did anything wrong." He went on to call his friend "a good person".
"Late Show" host Stephen Colbert responded to Trump's defense: "Mr. President, I want to remind you - you just declared April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. And there are two accusations of sexual assault I'm aware of: Bill O'Reilly's, and yours. So maybe you're not the perfect person to weigh in on this one," he concluded.
