On Wednesday, NYMag cited sources who said that executives at Fox News are preparing to announce Bill O’Reilly’s departure from the network before he returns from an Italian vacation on April 24. There remains two big questions, according to the report: How the exit will look and who will replace him.
According to NYMag:
Wednesday morning, according to sources, executives are holding emergency meetings to discuss how they can sever the relationship with the country’s highest-rated cable-news host without causing collateral damage to the network. The board of Fox News’ parent company, 21st Century Fox, is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss the matter.
Sources briefed on the discussions say O’Reilly’s exit negotiations are moving quickly. Right now, a key issue on the table is whether he would be allowed to say good-bye to his audience, perhaps the most loyal in all of cable (O’Reilly’s ratings have ticked up during the sexual-harassment allegations). Fox executives are leaning against allowing him to have a sign-off, sources say. The other main issue on the table is money. O’Reilly recently signed a new multiyear contract worth more than $20 million per year. When Roger Ailes left Fox News last summer, the Murdochs paid out $40 million, the remainder of his contract.
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The report further says that executives are debating his replacement. Eric Bolling, Dana Perino, and Tucker Carlson are names that have come up.
Gabriel Sherman added:
The Murdochs’ decision to dump O’Reilly shocked many Fox News staffers I’ve spoken to in recent days. Late last week, the feeling inside the company was that Rupert Murdoch would prevail over his son James, who lobbied to jettison the embattled host. It’s still unclear exactly how the tide turned. According to one source, Lachlan Murdoch’s wife helped convince her husband that O’Reilly needed to go, which moved Lachlan into James’s corner. The source added that senior executives at other divisions within the Murdoch empire have complained that if O’Reilly’s allegations had happened to anyone else at their companies, that person would be gone already.
Related:
- Maxine Waters: Bill O’Reilly ‘needs to go to jail’; Fox News a ‘sexual harassment enterprise’
- Bill O’Reilly: ‘At least three’ media orgs ordered employees to destroy Trump, ‘or else’
- CNN’s Stelter attacks Fox News for covering Rockville illegal alien rape case
- Carlson taking Kelly’s time slot at Fox, MacCallum moves up
- Video: Newsweek senior writer goes nuts on Tucker Carlson, melts down on Twitter
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