While not many people have publicly supported O’Reilly since the New York Times revealed that he had paid nearly $13 million in five separate sexual harassment settlements, Trump asserted that he does not believe the allegations against the Fox News star.
"I think he's a person I know well — he is a good person," Trump said an interview with the New York Times from the Oval Office on Wednesday. "I think he shouldn't have settled; personally, I think he shouldn't have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way. I don't think Bill did anything wrong."
The show has also seen a huge jump in ratings, with over 3.76 million people watching Tuesday evening’s episode of “The O’Reilly Factor.” That is a 20 percent boost from the previous Tuesday.
The Factor has been the highest-rated show in cable news for the last 16 years. In the first nine months of 2016 alone, the show generated more than $118 million.
Many large companies are involved in the commercial boycott, including Jenny Craig, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ancestry, Hyundai, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Consumer Care, Constant Contact, Lexus, UNTUCKit, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Esurance, T. Rowe Price, Credit Karma and Allstate. Nearly half of the 107 companies that recently advertised on the program are now refusing to do so again, Buzzfeed reports.
While O’Reilly may be so invaluable the network won’t let him go, companies have launched a successful boycott of a host in the not-so-distant past.
In 2011, Fox News terminated its contract with Glenn Beck after 200 companies pulled their advertisements.
Still, it is unlikely viewers will have to say goodbye to The Factor, as the network just signed a new contract with the host until 2020 — even after the report about his settlements went public.
