"I am sad that I am not on television anymore."
With those words, Bill O'Reilly broke his silence on Monday evening, addressing listeners for the first time since he was ousted from Fox News amid revelations that he and the network paid millions of dollars to settle allegations of sexual harassment against him by multiple women.
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Fox drops Bill O'Reilly over sex claims
Fox News has dropped its top anchor of more than 20 years Bill O'Reilly following a review of sexual harassment claims against him.
After 20 years as the king of cable news, O'Reilly's return to broadcasting came not on camera, but in the form of a 19-minute recorded podcast on his personal website. At the outset, he acknowledged to his fans that this was "a completely different experience than what you've had in the past."
"I was very surprised how it all turned out," O'Reilly said of his forced exit last week from Fox News. "I can't say a lot because there's much stuff going on right now. But I can tell you that I'm very confident the truth will come out. And when it does - I don't know if you're going to be surprised, but I think you're going to be shaken, as I am."
O'Reilly said that he would record a current-events podcast on his subscription-based website, airing four nights a week, that he hoped would soon develop "into a genuine news program." But he demurred on offering further details about his abrupt removal from the air.
"I can't say any more because I just don't want to influence the flow of the information, OK?" O'Reilly said. "I don't want the media to take what I say and misconstrue it. You, as a loyal O'Reilly listener, have a right to know, down the lane, what exactly happened and we are working in that direction."
The re-emergence of O'Reilly, who was vacationing in Italy when Fox decided to dismiss him on Wednesday, came an hour before his successor at 8pm, Tucker Carlson, made his on-air debut in the time slot.
In a direct address to viewers, Carlson called himself a devoted O'Reilly fan who "marvelled at how prepared he was, how tough he was, and how crisply and directly he expressed his views."
![Bill O'Reilly has said he is "sad" that he's not on TV anymore.](/web/20170428161850im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/f/l/q/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvrukp.png/1493103169128.jpg)
"What O'Reilly did was not easy," Carlson said, just before the opening credits rolled. "He set a high bar. I'm going to do my best to meet it. Thanks for sticking with us."
Carlson's debut marked a crucial first test of Fox News' hastily revamped prime-time lineup. The ensemble show The Five was moved from the afternoon to the 9pm slot, featuring a new co-host, Jesse Watters, a former O'Reilly protege.
![Protesters outside the News Corporation headquarters, in New York.](/web/20170428161850im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/q/5/u/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvrukp.png/1493103169128.jpg)
Inside Fox News, there is still widespread unease about what the abrupt exit of O'Reilly means for the network. Without O'Reilly on the air, ratings at 8pm last week dipped nearly 30 per cent from his average for the first three months of the year.
The network was also hit Monday with a new lawsuit from a former anchor, Andrea Tantaros, who claimed that senior executives at Fox News spied on her and created an online campaign to harass her. The network denied all wrongdoing.
![Bill O'Reilly has started up his own podcast.](/web/20170428161850im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/o/e/b/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvrukp.png/1493103169128.jpg)
In a brief statement on the day he was let go, O'Reilly praised his former employer, and he restated that sentiment again Monday night. "Look, I was there for 20 years and six months," he said on his podcast. "That vehicle was fabulous for me, and I said in the beginning that I'm sad, but why wouldn't I wish them the best? They were there, we performed well for them, and that's the fact."
The podcast featured no guests, graphics or blaring headlines, and O'Reilly's usual I-know-best tone seemed softened, even plaintive at times. But elements of the usual O'Reilly attitude broke through.
![Tucker Carlson will begin airing an hour earlier to fill the time slot vacated by Bill O'Reilly.](/web/20170428161850im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/p/5/8/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvrukp.png/1493103169128.jpg)
He promoted his new book, Old School: Life in the Sane Lane, and talked up a planned national tour, listing four separate cities where he would soon be appearing ("Plenty of good seats remain"). He bashed the mainstream media, defended President Donald Trump, and threw in a dig at Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying she "could never get elected anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon Line."
Back at Fox News, the pressure is on. O'Reilly was the linchpin of its evening lineup, with a loyal following that swelled to nearly 4 million viewers a night earlier this year. It was his best-ever viewership - and a bountiful lead-in for his fellow anchors.
![Roger Ailes resigned from Fox News after allegations from at least six women.](/web/20170428161850im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/r/c/1/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvrukp.png/1493103169128.jpg)
But last week, with O'Reilly officially off the network, ratings fell.
Network executives pointed out that, even without O'Reilly, the Factor was still attracting slightly more viewers than the year before. Still, last Friday's Factor drew 2.84 million viewers, less than that day's 5pm edition of The Five and a 6pm airing of Bret Baier's Special Report, according to Nielsen statistics.
Concerns about the treatment of women at the network also remain.
Tantaros, a host who left the network last year, filed her lawsuit in US District Court in Manhattan on Monday.
Among the listed defendants were Fox News' former chairman, Roger E. Ailes, and several senior-level executives at the company, including its co-president, Bill Shine.
This is Tantaros' third lawsuit involving her tenure at Fox News. She sued Ailes and the network last year, saying that Ailes had sexually harassed her; that suit is in arbitration. She filed a separate suit last week in state Supreme Court in New York, claiming that Fox News tried to undermine her credibility by instigating a derogatory Twitter post about her.
Monday's lawsuit states that Fox News hacked into Tantaros' digital devices and eavesdropped on her phone calls, as retaliation for her claims against Ailes. Tantaros says in the suit that a fleet of anonymous social media accounts, known as "sock puppets," used the information to send her subtle and disconcerting signals that she was being watched.
"The key question here is whether the Murdochs are serious when they say they want to usher in a new era at Fox," said Judd Burstein, Tantaros' lawyer.
The network vigorously denied the accusations in a statement from its outside counsel, Dechert.
Fox News executives "have no knowledge of the anonymous or pseudonymous tweets described," the statement said. "This lawsuit is a flimsy pretext to keep Ms Tantaros and her sexual harassment claims in the public eye."
Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Ailes, dismissed the new lawsuit as meritless and "an obvious attempt to get publicity," adding: "The courts and the parties should not be burdened by repeated filings such as this."
New York Times