Ratings Soar For 'The Factor' On Fox

More than 3.76 million people tuned in to Tuesday night’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” an increase of 20% from the same day’s telecast last week, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

The spike comes despite a very public backlash to a Saturday New York Times report  that five women had received payments coming to about $13 million in exchange for agreeing not to pursue litigation or speak about accusations related to sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior by O’Reilly, the veteran Fox News broadcaster who is the linchpin of the network’s primetime lineup.

O’Reilly in a statement said his fame had made him a target, but that no complaint about him had ever been made through Fox’s human-resources hotline.

According Variety, his “Factor” broadcast Tuesday night captured an average of 628,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, an increase of 11% from last week’s Tuesday-night audience.  What’s more, his show won more viewers overall than either ABC’s “Imaginary Mary” or NBC’s “Trial and Error.”