--- title: Bill O'Reilly Accusations Turn Out Good for Ratings description: The O'Reilly Factor drew its highest ratings since the Ferguson demonstrations canonical: https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-27T14:45:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:46:47.936Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Bill O'Reilly Accusations Turn Out Good for Ratings og:description: The O'Reilly Factor drew its highest ratings since the Ferguson demonstrations og:url: https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte577b842d24dc983/6987815d5f570f80f0b15812/bill-oreilly2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: bill-oreilly og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill O'Reilly Accusations Turn Out Good for Ratings twitter:description: The O'Reilly Factor drew its highest ratings since the Ferguson demonstrations twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte577b842d24dc983/6987815d5f570f80f0b15812/bill-oreilly2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill O'Reilly Gets a Boost in Viewers After Dispute Over Falklands Claims by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 27, 2015 2:45 PM UTC  Bill O'Reilly attends a basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on February 10, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Bill O'Reilly attends a basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on February 10, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.Noel Vasquez—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 27, 2015 2:45 PM UTC The claims over Bill O’Reilly’s Falklands war reporting seem to be having a very good effect on his ratings: on Wednesday night, the Fox News talking head drew his [highest numbers of the year so far](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bill-oreilly-ratings-rise-controversy-778094). According to _The Hollywood Reporter_, the last time _The O’Reilly Factor_ saw such high ratings was during demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo. in November. O’Reilly [says](http://time.com/3720993/bill-oreilly-and-the-truthiness-defense/) that he has not exaggerated his experience during the Falklands War between Argentina and the U.K., maintaining that he never said he was on the islands and was clear that he only reported on the conflict from Buenos Aires. A report by _Mother Jones_ said he mischaracterized a violent protest as a combat situation in a number of statements over the years. \[[_The Hollywood Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bill-oreilly-ratings-rise-controversy-778094)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/"},"headline":"Bill O'Reilly Gets a Boost in Viewers After Dispute Over Falklands Claims","datePublished":"2015-02-27T14:45:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:46:47.936Z","description":"The O'Reilly Factor drew its highest ratings of 2015 on Wednesday","url":"https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/","keywords":["Television","bill o'reilly"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte577b842d24dc983/6987815d5f570f80f0b15812/bill-oreilly2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte577b842d24dc983/6987815d5f570f80f0b15812/bill-oreilly2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"bill-oreilly","caption":"Bill O'Reilly attends a basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on February 10, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.","creditText":"Noel Vasquez—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3725772/bill-oreilly-ratings/","name":"Bill O'Reilly Gets a Boost in Viewers After Dispute Over Falklands Claims"}}]}] ```