Star Factor

As Fox News Grew, Bill O’Reilly Became a Household Name

By MCN Staff -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

Bill O’Reilly was present at Fox News Channel’s creation, with his show originally airing as The O’Reilly Report. A veteran local-station and network newsman and anchor, O’Reilly turned around the floundering syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition before attending Harvard University and then joining FNC, where his smarts, toughness and strong opinions have turned the show, since renamed The O’Reilly Factor, into cable news’ top-rated show since March 2001. O’Reilly, in a recent interview with Multichannel News online editor Mike Reynolds, looked back at what has made the Factor into a TV icon, FNC’s perch atop the cable news sector, what lies ahead in the November election and his future.

MCN: To what depth has the network succeeded on the principles laid out by Roger Ailes’ initial mission statement of attracting more viewers by presenting facts, by being fair and balanced?

Bill O’Reilly: I see a huge difference between Fox News’ presentation and the presentation on our competition, CNN and MSNBC and Headline News. And the difference is basically more authenticity. You know on one network you’re getting a very strong, left-wing, partisan approach, which is fine, they can do what they want. And then the other, you’re getting the traditional, trying to be middle of the road, but a culture that is much more liberal than traditional.

And I think that as far as the facts are concerned, there’s not much difference between CNN and Fox. And MSNBC doesn’t really deal in facts, so we don’t take them …

MCN: (Laughter)

O’Reilly: I’m not saying that disparagingly; they just don’t do it. They don’t have a Sheppard Smith broadcast, they don’t have a Bret Baier broadcast, they don’t have news blocks throughout the day. And they don’t have correspondents of their own; they borrow NBC’s correspondents.

There’s no real difference in the factual presentation between Fox and CNN. It’s what stories you cover, what you feel is interesting to your audience. And there is where Roger Ailes’ philosophy comes into play. It’s story selection.

MCN: Do you think many see you as the face, voice of the Fox News Channel?

O’Reilly: I know I’m famous and all of that and, usually, the big mouths get the attention and certainly I’m a big mouth. But I don’t really look at it like I’m the face of the network or anything like that. What I try to do is deliver a good program so that people will watch it, so we’ll get high ratings and the network will prosper. I mean it’s just a simple business proposition.

MCN: The O’Reilly Factor has been the top cable news show for 134 consecutive months. How do you explain your success?

O’Reilly: I’m a very competitive guy, so I want to win and by a huge margin. I remember early on, I was competing against Chris Matthews’ Hardball on MSNBC at 8 p.m., and I said, “We’re going to beat this guy. We’re going right after him.”

And they looked at me askance because we only had, at that point, maybe 50 million subscribers. We just didn’t have a lot of eyeballs available to us. I said, “Well, we’re going to beat them.” I targeted them and I targeted Larry King in the sense that I saw his rating [and said], “We can do higher than that.” I am a competitive guy.

It’s not enough just to win the night. We have to win the night decisively. And we’ve been lucky enough to do it primarily because we are focused on and know what the audience likes. But we don’t pander to the audience.

And if you lose a few, you lose a few. But that has added to our success. And we’ve broadened it out so that I think anybody can enjoy the program. You don’t have to be a conservative or a liberal or an independent. It’s just entertaining and informative on its own merits.

MCN: Are you surprised that Fox News Channel beat CNN after its first five years?

O’Reilly: I mean, it was all a matter of getting the channel into the homes and having people sample. You know, I’m a fairly confident, cocky guy.

MCN: I know.

O’Reilly: I took over a show called Inside Edition that was going down the drain. They fired David Frost three weeks after he took over and they looked at me and they said, “We’re going to lose $50 million dollars; can you turn it around?” And I said, “Maybe. You know, it depends on how much money you’re going to sink into it and how much latitude you’re going give me.” And I said, “I’ll take it over, but I have to write everything, including the promos, and get out of my way.” And we turned that around; and that show is still on the air.

So I’ve always been confident that I can deliver a product that Americans can respond to. And I don’t change the product. If we have a bad night on Thursday, I’m not changing it on Friday. We get a game plan, we get good people — I only have 15, but they’re like Navy SEALs — we execute it in a very, disciplined manner.

So I’m not surprised that the Fox News Channel has succeeded; I think it’s been a very disciplined operation. I think they know that the traditional audience, which is enormous, was underserved so Roger and the guys came up with a formula, “We’re going to be respectful toward traditional and conservative Americans, not sneering and not demeaning. And just that tone will bring them in, and then we’ll give them a product that they feel is worthy.” And that’s what happened.

MCN: Do you think there will be a second Obama term?

O’Reilly: Impossible to say, because the economics will dictate how uneasy the voters feel. If the voter in November feels insecure, then Obama will lose. It really doesn’t matter who runs against him. But if things get better and there’s optimism in the air, then the president could very well win because he’s a very, very good campaigner. And Americans still like him personally.

MCN: Your contract is up at the end of this year. How much longer do you see yourself doing this?

O’Reilly: We’ll see what happens.