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Information about The O'reilly Factor

The O'Reilly Factor

O'Reilly Factor promotional image from FoxNews.com
Created byBill O'Reilly
StarringBill O'Reilly
(1996–present)
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes2690 as of January 26, 2007
Production
Running time60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channelFox News Channel
Picture formatNTSC (480i)
Original runOctober 7, 1996 – Present
External links
Official website
TV.com summary
The O'Reilly Factor is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who discusses current political and social issues with guests from opposing ends of the political spectrum. The show premiered in 1996, along with the Fox News Channel. It was previously known as the O'Reilly Report, and O'Reilly's first guest was General Barry McCaffrey, then the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (or "Drug Czar").

The O'Reilly Factor is currently the highest rated show on cable news and the highlight of O'Reilly's career.[1] O'Reilly is known for his confrontational interview style and strong opinions, for which the program has been both criticized and praised.

Format

Enlarge picture
An example of The O'Reilly Factor's Talking Points Memo
The program is done "live to tape", meaning that unlike other Fox News Channel programs at night, The O'Reilly Factor is prerecorded. The program is live for breaking news or special events. The show usually tapes between 5 and 7pm Eastern Standard Time, although some guests are interviewed before the "live to tape" period and are slotted in the program as appropriate. (Some guests have suggested that interviews are edited after taping, although O'Reilly's producers insist that editing happens only when an interview exceeds the available length in a program of which the total is 43 minutes for an hour-long slot, once commercials and news breaks are added.)[2][3]

O'Reilly and his producers discuss potential topics twice a week.[4] A producer will research the story and book guests for O'Reilly, and an information packet will be produced with possible angles for O'Reilly to explore. The producers will often "pre-interview" the guest so that they know what potential points he will make.[5] For each show, O'Reilly with the assistance of his staff will produce a script with the words for the "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" segments, and points of discussion and questions for the guests that will appear on the program.

O'Reilly divides his show into titled segments, appearing in the following general order. Not all segments appear in all programs, and occasionally segments will repeat.
  • Talking Points Memo: O'Reilly's commentary on a current event or the state of the country. This does not usually appear when there is a substitute host, although John Gibson, Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin have done it on occasion.
  • Top Story: O'Reilly covers one of the most important stories of the day, with interviews with newsmakers, noted analysts, or Fox News Channel reporters. If there is nothing breaking, the Top Story will often expand on the subject covered in the Talking Points Memo with a guest that either rebuts or concurs with the memo.
  • Impact: O'Reilly focuses on issues of crime and the law in this segment. Updates on criminal investigations, trials, and lawsuits are highlighted. Other times, issues relating to government relations and agencies are featured, as are stories about the Iraq War.
  • Unresolved Problem: O'Reilly focuses on an issue which he feels is not sufficiently covered by other media.
  • Personal Story: O'Reilly invites an author of a best selling book, a newsmaker thrust into the spotlight, someone who has experienced an event currently in the news, or someone who has interviewed a newsmaker. The goal of this segment is to have the guest relate his personal experiences about the topic.
  • Factor Follow-Up: O'Reilly revisits an issue discussed in a previous edition of the Factor.
  • Back of the Book: Various topics will be placed in this segment, which is one of the last segments (hence the name). The tone can range the gamut from extremely serious to light hearted.
  • The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day: a brief segment highlighting something O'Reilly finds absurd, or in some cases, the direct opposite.
  • Factor Mail: O'Reilly reads brief snippets of electronic mail sent to him. He frequently puts together letters that have opposite viewpoints on a particular segment. For instance, one letter will say O'Reilly was way too lenient toward a guest while the next will say he was way too hard on him.
Occasionally, the following segments appear:
  • Children at Risk: O'Reilly covers issues relating to the health and well-being of children and adolescents.
  • Factor Investigation: O'Reilly invites guests who have investigated a person or organization that O'Reilly dislikes.
  • Fridays with Geraldo: Geraldo Rivera, of the Fox News-produced and syndicated Geraldo At Large, discusses a topic of interest to O'Reilly. Often, Geraldo comes on Thursdays, because O'Reilly frequently takes Fridays off. Sometimes its own segment; other times rolled into one of the above segments
  • Bloviating with Bill: A regular viewer gets a chance to debate O'Reilly.
  • Policing the ...: A segment where O'Reilly reviews several sources for normally outlandish content. the "the" in the name is usually followed up by "net" (Internet), or Media.
  • Patriots and Pinheads: a segment where he praises someone whom he feels has done good for the United States while chastising someone else whom he feels harms the country.
When O'Reilly cannot host the show, Fox News Channel selects his replacement. Depending on the substitute's time frame, the program may be live more often, especially with John Gibson. Sometimes a previous show is rebroadcast but this has become more rare to the point of not happening anymore. A notable interview will usually reair filling up one or more segments in a show with a guest host.

O'Reilly has had two call-in segments to his show: one immediately following and in response to Connie Chung's interview with Gary Condit and the other with Gary Bauer as his guest, pertaining to terrorism.

Audience

58% of O'Reilly's audience is over 50 years of age according to a Pew research poll[6]

While O'Reilly calls himself an independent, he is considered by many to be conservative. 68% of "The Factor's" regular viewers identify as conservative while 10% consider themselves liberal.[7] In June 2007, Adweek Magazine sponsored a survey that asked participants who they trusted more as a source of political information between ABC News and Bill O'Reilly. According to the poll, 36% believe that O'Reilly is a better source than ABC News while 26% believe the opposite. According to the survey, 23% of Democrats believed that O'Reilly was a better source while 55% of Republicans believed the same.[8]

Regular guests

Frequent topics

  • National Security vs. the Infringement of Constitutional Civil Liberties
  • Iraq War
  • Iran's nuclear ambitions and alleged link to aiding terrorism in Iraq
  • Jessica's Law - O'Reilly is pushing for legislation in all 50 states to pass the law, which proposes stricter measures for dealing with child sex offenders. He has states shaded based on which ones are supporting it and those that resist it.
  • "Traditionalists" vs. "Secular-progressives" - O'Reilly discusses a culture war between these two lines of thinking.
  • Illegal Immigration

Parodies

In 2005, The Colbert Report premiered on Comedy Central. The show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, is a satirical spoof of The O'Reilly Factor, spoofing its format and the mannerisms and ideology of O'Reilly, whom Colbert calls "Papa Bear." Colbert makes no secret of his spoofing O'Reilly: upon hearing the news that O'Reilly approved of The Colbert Report, Stephen declared on-air that "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist." Many of Stephen Colbert's attitudes, actions, or program segments are directly inspired by O'Reilly's show. Colbert calls the character based on Bill O'Reilly "a well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot".[9] On 18 January 2007, Stephen Colbert appeared on the O'Reilly Factor and Bill O'Reilly appeared on the Colbert Report.[10][11]

The O'Reilly Factor has also been spoofed on Saturday Night Live, first by Jeff Richards and later on by Darrell Hammond. On Mad TV it was Michael McDonald doing the honors. O'Reilly himself has appeared on Mad TV as a judge on an American Idol parody .

In addition, The O'Reilly Factor has been parodied on South Park in the episode Goobacks.

In The Political Machine, a show that you can appear on while running for president is called "The O'Malley Factor".

Radio disc-jockey Mike O'Meara of the Don and Mike Show does an impersonation of his voice and mannerisms on occasion during the show.

The Australian show CNNNN, which aired from 2001 to 2004, had a segment called The Firth Factor in which Charles Firth, a member of the Chaser comedy team would talk about an issue. Firth would use over the top comparisons (such as dipping a paper heart in a can of black paint and claiming: "This is how black Saddam Hussein's heart is") and outrageous statements to parody O'Reilly and Australian celebrities. Topics included the Iraq War, evil environmentalists, corporate high flyers, drugs and refugees.

People who decline to appear on The Factor

O'Reilly has invited onto the show people who have been critical of him (or vice versa) and/or dealing with a controversial situation that have declined or ignored the invitation. Some that have been invited but have not gone on include Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney[12] , Bill Moyers,[13], Nicholas Kristof[14], and Tony Blair[15]. Others who decline to appear include Barack Obama, Jane Fonda, Bill Keller, Fred Thompson, Jimmy Carter, Gavin Newsom, Rosa Brooks, Alan Alda, and Paul Krugman. O'Reilly has also offered to donate $25,000 to Habitat for Humanity if Bruce Springsteen would come on the show[16].

External links

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Greenroom Confessions - boise weekly (2005).
3. ^ Bill O'Reilly.com behind the scenes Q/A.
4. ^ Bostonia - BU alumni quarterly (2001).
5. ^ Accuracy in media report (2003).
6. ^ Pew Research Center Report - Maturing Internet News Audience Broader Than Deep (2006).
7. ^ Pew Research Center Report - Maturing Internet News Audience Broader Than Deep (2006).
8. ^ Where Voters Go for News. Adweek Magazine (2007-06-11). Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
9. ^ Solomon, Deborah. "Funny About the News", New York Times Magazine. 
10. ^ Stephen Colbert Enters the No Spin Zone. Foxnews.com Published . Last Retrieved .
11. ^ Bill O'Reilly Pt. 1. ComedyCentral.com January 18, 2007. Last Retrieved .
12. ^ [2]
13. ^ ABC news - Bill O'Reilly calls himself T-warrior -.
14. ^ Sympathy for Bill O'Reilly (2006 ).
15. ^ [3]
16. ^ [4]


Fox News Channel Programming
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For the cricketer, see .


William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. (born September 10, 1949)[1] is an American political commentator, and the host of the cable news program The O'Reilly Factor.
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For the cricketer, see .


William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. (born September 10, 1949)[1] is an American political commentator, and the host of the cable news program The O'Reilly Factor.
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Motto
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Fox News Channel

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talk show (American) or chat show (British) is a television or radio program where one person or group of people come together to discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host.
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Fox News Channel

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A pundit is, in contemporary English, someone who offers mass-media opinion, analysis or commentary on a particular subject area, (most typically political analysis, the social sciences or sport), on which they are presumed to be knowledgeable.
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William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. (born September 10, 1949)[1] is an American political commentator, and the host of the cable news program The O'Reilly Factor.
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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Barry Richard McCaffrey (b. November 17 1942, Taunton, Massachusetts) is a retired United States Army General. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the United States Military Academy, where he had been the Bradley Professor of International Security Studies from 2001 to
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The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a Cabinet level component of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, was established in 1988 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act.
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Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear.
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Tsar (Bulgarian, Serbian: цар, Russian   (help) , in scientific transliteration respectively car and car' ), occasionally spelled Czar or Tzar
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Gerald Michael Rivera[1] (born July 4, 1943), known by his TV name Geraldo Rivera or simply Geraldo, is an American television journalist, attorney, and former talk show host.
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Geraldo at Large is a United States television newsmagazine, hosted by Fox News correspondent-at-large and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera.

History

Debuting in national syndication on October 31, 2005 as a replacement for A Current Affair,
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Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (Simplified Chinese: 宗毓华; Traditional Chinese: 宗毓華; Pinyin: Zōng Yùhuá
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In office
1989-1993 (15th)
1993-2003 (18th)
Preceded by
Succeeded by


Born March 21 1948 (1948--) (age 59)
Salina, Oklahoma
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Gary L. Bauer (born May 4 1946, Covington, Kentucky)[1] is a conservative American politician notable for his ties to several evangelical Christian groups and campaigns. In 1973, Bauer received a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University.
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Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs.
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Liberal may refer to:

Politics:
  • Liberalism, a political ideology that seeks to maximize individual liberties.
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