Advertisers are fleeing Bill O'Reilly, but viewers aren't

NEW YORK (AP) — 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.

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 him. O'Reilly has denied any wrongdoing.



The amount of advertising time by paying customers on his show has been cut by more than half since the 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.