Bill O’Reilly has been dropped by his longtime talent agency. Sources tell Deadline that UTA will not continue to represent the former Fox News host when his agreement with the agency expires at the end of the year.
“Bill has already lined up alternative representation,” a spokesperson for O’Reilly said Tuesday.
O’Reilly has been a longtime client of the agency, beginning with the N.S Bienstock Agency, and continuing when Bienstock was acquired by UTA in 2014.
The latest fallout follows the story in the New York Times over the weekend that detailed a $32 million settlement paid by O’Reilly to a former Fox News analyst who had made a claim against him. News of the settlement was known before 21st Century Fox granted a four-year extension to O’Reilly’s contract.
“When the company renewed Bill O’Reilly’s contract in February, it knew that a sexual harassment lawsuit had been threatened against him by Lis Wiehl, but was informed by Mr. O’Reilly that he had settled the matter personally, on financial terms that he and Ms. Wiehl had agreed were confidential and not disclosed to the company,” said parent company 21st Century Fox in a statement Sunday of the January agreement.
O’Reilly has been fighting back since the Times story broke. A statement released on behalf of O’Reilly by Fabiani at the time said in part, “Once again, The New York Times has maliciously smeared Bill O’Reilly” and “The Times ignored that evidence, sworn under oath, and chose to rely on unsubstantiated allegations, anonymous sources and incomplete or stolen documents.”
Now podcasting, O’Reilly has said that the truth will come out on why he was really fired in April by Fox, but no updates on that front yet.
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