Hasta La Creative!

Bill O’Reilly’s name was effectively wiped from Fox News on Wednesday night, with the show he anchored for two decades, “The O’Reilly Factor,” renamed simply “The Factor.” While the cable news behemoth has taken steps to distance itself from O’Reilly, however, advertisers that fled the show this month after The New York Times reported on sexual harrassment allegations against him are so far remaining quiet about whether things will return to business as usual now that his exit is official.

Wednesday’s episode of the show, anchored by Dana Perino, had the lightest ad load to date since the April 1 Times report, excluding a shortened episode on April 6 when the show was interrupted by breaking news of the U.S. missile strike against Syria, according to iSpot. Wednesday’s broadcast had nine sponsors and eight and a half minutes of commercial time. It was mostly filled with direct response advertisers like My Pillow and Turbo Scrub, along with gold company Rosland Capital, which has stuck by the show amid the allegations against O’Reilly. Life insurance companies FastLife and Coventry Direct and 15-second spots for Sandals Resorts and Gravely lawn mowers also appeared.

Prior to the New York Times report, which revealed that Mr. O’Reilly and Fox News paid $13 million to five women to settle sexual harassment allegations, “The O’Reilly Factor” had anywhere from 40 to 50 advertisers airing commercials on any given night, according to iSpot.

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