Fox Poised to Sign Hannity and O'Reilly to Multi-year Deals

Sources confirm to Newsmax that Fox News is on the verge of finalizing multi-year contracts to extend the runs of the two biggest ratings dynamos in cable news, Fox News Channel hosts Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.

Deadline.com originally reported Wednesday afternoon that Hannity and O’Reilly are expected to sign off on the new deals with Fox News perhaps as early as next week.

The website described the contracts as “multi-year, multi-million dollar agreements.” The deals will extend both hosts through their 20-year anniversaries with the network.

Sources at Fox News Channel verified the Deadline.com report.

Both hosts have played a critical role in keeping Fox at the pinnacle of the cable news ratings game.

Deadline.com notes that The O’Reilly Factor has held the No. 1 spot in the cable news ratings for 125 straight months.

Hannity also is the No. 1 rated cable-news program in its 9 p.m. ET time slot, and trails only The O’Reilly Factor for the top viewership in all of cable news. Also, Hannity’s ABC Radio Networks show has over 13.5 million listeners nationwide.

Both newsmen have been with Fox since its inception in 1996. O’Reilly’s existing contract reportedly had been set to expire at year’s end.