A sexual-harassment scandal has ended Bill O'Reilly's tenure at Fox News Channel, where he has been the host of its highest-rated show, "The O'Reilly Factor," for decades.
Earlier in April, an explosive New York Times investigation found that the host and Fox News had paid out $13 million to five women who had accused O'Reilly of unwanted sexual advances. Another Fox News contributor, Wendy Walsh, and now a clerical worker have also made allegations of sexual harassment against O'Reilly.
In the wake of the accusations and an exodus of more than 20 advertisers from O'Reilly's show, he stopped hosting the show. His official reason was a planned vacation, but reports said that he would not be returning.
On Wednesday, Fox issued a statement confirming that O'Reilly "will not be returning to the Fox News Channel."
How did O'Reilly rise to such prominence and influence? Here's a look at the conservative host and commentator's career — and what killed his show:
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The counterculture of the 1960s sparked Bill O'Reilly's journalism career.
Bill O'Reilly was born in New York City and raised in Long Island. He spent his early education in Catholic schools and attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In his junior year, he studied abroad in London. O'Reilly said that when he returned from Europe, the '60s counterculture movement had become very popular in the US. And although he says he didn't participate, his observations of the times sparked his desire to become a journalist.
O'Reilly paid his dues before anchoring his own news program in 1980.
After graduating from Boston University with a master's degree in broadcast journalism, O'Reilly reported for local news stations in Dallas, Denver, Portland, and Boston. He then got his first big anchoring job at CBS's local New York affiliate in 1980. Two years later, he was promoted to the network news team as a correspondent. He was then poached by ABC News in 1986.
O'Reilly cemented his audience appeal as the host of "Inside Edition" in the early '90s.
In 1989, he left ABC News to become the host of the syndicated news entertainment show "Inside Edition." During five of his six years as its host, it was the highest-watched infotainment show on TV. After leaving the show in 1995, O'Reilly enrolled at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government for his second master's degree, this one in public administration.
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