Bill O’Reilly Gloats Over Colbert’s Demise: ‘Won’t Last Until May’
“If I got onto Colbert, the ratings would double,” the former Fox News host boasted.
Former Fox News firebrand Bill O’Reilly is gloating over the cancellation of The Late Show, saying host Stephen Colbert only has himself to blame for failing to invite more conservative guests—such as himself.
“He’s not going to last until May,” O’Reilly said in a segment on his podcast No Spin News. “I submit to you that if I got onto Colbert, the ratings would double.”
“No CBS program will put me on,” he continued. “Not only won’t you put me on, you won’t put anyone on who’s not a liberal, unless you want to disparage them.”
In a warning to fellow major network personalities, O’Reilly argued in a separate segment that Colbert is just the first “martyr” to fall. More will follow unless the major television networks—CBS, NBC, and ABC—“change dramatically” and align themselves with the views of the current administration and its supporters.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with guest Bill O’Reilly, in 2016.
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images
The View hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon are all in the crosshairs as the acceptability of political discourse shifts, O’Reilly said.
This vibe change is, of course, thanks to President Donald Trump, whose $16 million settlement with CBS—among a host of other legal battles—has been blamed for the abrupt cancellation of The Late Show.
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Americans, O’Reilly contends, think it’s “unfair” that late-night hosts can repeatedly “come out and demean and try to hurt the president of the United States in personal ways.”
Such outspoken criticism of the administration would not be tolerated in China or Russia, O’Reilly said and, given the way the winds are blowing, it should come as no surprise that Colbert was cancelled.
O’Reilly, who began his career as a journalist on CBS and ABC before moving to Fox News in 1996, did in fact appear on The Late Show in 2016 and touted his “75″ appearances on other late-night programs. Recently, however, no one seems to want to book him—something he attributes to the “censorship” of his political views.
Bill O'Reilly, who disappeared from regularly scheduled programming on network TV in 2017 after being fired from Fox News.
NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via
The former O’Reilly Factor host disappeared from regularly scheduled programming on network TV in 2017 after being fired from Fox News. The sacking came after The New York Times revealed a long history of sexual harassment in the workplace and the settling of six sexual misconduct lawsuits to the tune of $45 million. He has since hosted the No Spin News podcast.
In O’Reilly’s view, commentators who currently work for networks such as CBS and ABC either need to get with the conservative program, or prepare to meet the same fate as Colbert.
“In October, CBS, as you know it, as we know it, is gone. A company called Skydance Media is coming in to take it over. Much more conservative company than CBS,” O’Reilly said. “It’s going to change every single thing. New dawn.”
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