In October, The New York Times reported that Bill O’Reilly paid out a $32 million in a sexual harassment settlement just months before Fox News offered him his biggest contract yet. While O’Reilly denied any wrongdoing, the massive settlement garnered much attention; it was higher than any known payout in a settlement with a current or former Fox News employee, including the $20 million given to Gretchen Carlson following claims against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes.
But it wasn’t enough to set off his massive payday, and even discounting the settlement, O’Reilly would have earned $5 million last year--meaning that even paying for his alleged wrongdoing didn’t make him come out at a loss.
The former television host, who now has subscription-based podcast No Spin News and an online video series, earned $37 million in the 12 months leading up to June 1, 2017, landing him a spot on Forbes’ annual list of top-earning television hosts and his biggest annual haul since Forbes started keeping track.
Most of his earnings come from his longtime former home, Fox News, and are the result of a new contract signed two months before being booted off the conservative-leaning news network amid allegations of sexual harassment (he denies any wrongdoing), a revelation of multiple settlements made by him and the network regarding those claims (though the $32 million one was not yet public) and a 60-plus advertiser boycott of his former show The O’Reilly Factor, which was consistently the top show on cable news.
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O’Reilly’s best-selling books--for which he earns hefty seven-figure advances--subscription-only podcast, speaking gigs and a National Geographic adaption of one of his books account for the rest of his paycheck. Nearly all of his earnings come from the months prior to his fall from grace.
Since then, O’Reilly’s revenue generators have slowly been drying up—but they are far from barren. His most recent book, Killing England, was released in September and lasted three weeks at the top of the New York Times' bestseller list in the nonfiction hardcover category. But sales were considerably down compared to the previous books in the Killing series: Killing England sold 212,000 copies in the four weeks following its release, according to The NPD Group. That’s the lowest cume of the series since the first Killing book was released in 2011.
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While O’Reilly claims his podcast draws hundreds of thousands of subscribers, the number is nowhere near the millions he reached each night on The O’Reilly Factor, and with each passing day, a big television deal for the former star seems less likely. It was rumored that Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the nation’s largest owner of television stations that leans conservative, was in talks to sign on O’Reilly either for “must-run” news segments or a potential cable news station, but on a conference call last week CEO Chris Ripley said that while O’Reilly approached the company, it has “no interest in hiring him.”
His only remaining opportunity may be with conservative media group Newsmax. As recently as last week, he was reportedly in talks with the company to host a show on its fledgling cable news network Newsmax TV, which launched three years ago and reaches about 35 million households. Newsmax’s website has consistently stuck by O’Reilly, including by publishing negative stories about his accusers, and the group lets O’Reilly use its podcast studio.
While a deal with Newsmax would mean an influx of money for O’Reilly, it would almost certainly not be anywhere near the $25 million per year he would have made from deep-pocked Fox News--a salary he will likely never achieve again. In fact, Fox News will likely remain his biggest revenue source for years to come as the network still owes him about $18 million of his severance package. The golden parachute, it seems, is still keeping him afloat.
