AP

Ratings for “The Factor,” formerly “The O’Reilly Factor,” were up considerably on Wednesday night in the wake of the announcement that host Bill O’Reilly has been fired by Fox News.

The Dana Perino-hosted edition of the 8 p.m. cable news show clocked in with 3.3 million viewers, with 625,000 of those falling in the key adults 25-54 demo. That is approximately a 22% increase in total viewers and approximately a 25% boost in the demo compared to Tuesday’s episode (2.7 million, 499,000). Wednesday’s ratings were good enough to beat even some broadcast shows, including a new episode of “Shots Fired” (3.2 million) on Fox.

O’Reilly was fired from the network on Wednesday as he deals with the fallout from multiple sexual harassment allegations. He has been under fire since a New York Times report surfaced stating that five women had received payments coming to about $13 million in exchange for agreeing not to pursue litigation or speak about accusations related to sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior by O’Reilly. O’Reilly in a statement said his fame had made him a target, but that no complaint about him had ever been made through Fox’s human-resources hotline.

A large number of advertisers subesequently announced their decision to suspend their ties with “The Factor,” including Jenny Craig, GlaxoSmithKline, Mitsubishi Motors, BMW and Ainsworth Pet Nutrition.

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The network also announced Wednesday that Tucker Carlson will move to O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. slot starting Monday, April 24. Fox News will fill Carlson’s former berth with its panel show, “The Five,” which will be co-anchored by Kimberly Guilfoyle, Dana Perino, Bob Beckel, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Juan Williams will Sean Hannity will remain at 10 p.m.