On vacation. 
 
 Embattled Fox News host Bill O’Reilly announced tonight that he is taking a vacation. O’Reilly’s decision to go off the air in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal and advertiser boycott arguably has the appearance of a suspension, but O’Reilly worked to dispel that notion. He announced that he’d scheduled his trip “last fall” — well before the New York Times reported he paid $13 million to settle harassment claims. A Fox News spokesperson confirmed O’Reilly will return on April 24. 
 
 Here’s how O’Reilly talked about his vacation on the show Tuesday night. 
 
 But according to four network sources, there’s talk inside Fox News that tonight’s show could be his last. Lawyers for the law firm Paul, Weiss, hired last summer by 21st Century Fox to investigate Roger Ailes, are currently doing a “deep dive” investigation into O’Reilly’s behavior. They’re focused now on sexual harassment claims by O’Reilly guest Wendy Walsh after she reported her claims via the company’s anonymous hotline. 
 
 Fox News co-president Bill Shine has been working hard to keep O’Reilly, sources said. But O’Reilly’s future is in the hands of the Murdochs. “It’s up to the family,” the senior Fox News staffer said. The Murdochs are presently divided over how to handle it. Two highly placed Fox News sources say 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch would like O’Reilly to be permanently taken off the air, while his father, Rupert, and older brother, Lachlan, are more inclined to keep him. (A spokesperson for the Murdochs declined to comment.) 
 
 That dynamic — James pushing for swift action, while Rupert resists — played out last summer in the Ailes scandal. James, of course, got his way with Ailes. With more than three dozen advertisers boycotting O’Reilly, Fox staffers speculate the same may happen to O’Reilly, perhaps as early as during his vacation. “The assumption is that he’ll exit in a non-embarrassing way,” one senior Fox News staffer told me. ||||| Will the Murdochs back O’Reilly — or show him the exit? 
 
 With only six days remaining in Bill O’Reilly’s vacation, the pressure on the Murdoch family to decide the embattled commentator’s fate is intensifying. Three sources with knowledge of the discussions said that, while no final decision has been made, the Murdochs are leaning toward announcing that O’Reilly will not return to the air. Sons James and Lachlan have been arguing that O’Reilly needs to go, say these sources, though their father, Rupert, has resisted that outcome. 
 
 The prospect of dumping O’Reilly — once unimaginable — has gained steam this week due in part to street protests outside Fox News headquarters and advertiser boycotts on O’Reilly’s air. One network insider said Fox executives are alarmed by the severity of the ad-revenue decline. “It’s worse than Glenn Beck,” the insider said, referring to the advertiser revolt that helped derail Beck’s Fox News career in 2011. 
 
 Here’s how Bill O’Reilly dealt with the vacation on his show. 
 
 
 
 Another factor: the Murdochs’ pending $14 billion takeover of European pay-TV provider Sky. On May 16, the British media regulator Ofcom is set to judge whether the Murdochs are “fit and proper” to own such a large media property. Removing O’Reilly could appease critics and help close the Sky deal. (In 2011, the Murdochs abandoned their initial takeover offer for Sky after the London phone-hacking scandal.) 
 
 Meanwhile, the Murdochs are also dealing with a restive workplace. Female Fox News employees are growing increasingly frustrated that the Murdochs have not forcefully confronted the company’s culture of sexual harassment in the wake of removing Roger Ailes. “Morale is awful,” one Fox female executive told me yesterday, adding that employees are wondering if budgets have been cut to pay for sexual-harassment settlements. “There’s been no word from management to calm the masses.” (Spokespersons for 21st Century Fox and Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.) 
 
 Sources describe the Murdoch family discussions as fraught. Initially, according to sources, Lachlan was aligned with his father, but in recent days he has leaned more in his brother James’s direction. “The three are fighting,” the insider said. In some ways, deciding O’Reilly’s fate is more complicated than the decision to oust Ailes last summer. O’Reilly is Fox’s highest-rated host and the linchpin of the prime-time schedule, so his removal could have immediate effects on the network’s ratings. And according to one Fox source, Rupert has told people he does not want to fire O’Reilly because it would make it appear he was forced into a decision by “the New York Times.” 
 
 Rupert Murdoch built his media empire without paying much attention to corporate norms and rules, but his sons showed with the ouster of Ailes that they wanted to run a different kind of company. What happens to O’Reilly will tell us more about who is winning the intergenerational battle over 21st Century Fox. ||||| Fox News will no longer even respond to questions about whether Bill O'Reilly will return to his show. 
 
 A well-placed source said Tuesday afternoon that representatives for Fox and O'Reilly have begun talking about an exit. But this prompted a denial from sources in O'Reilly's camp. 
 
 Even one person close to O'Reilly, however, said he will probably not be back on "The O'Reilly Factor." 
 
 The original well-placed source said an announcement about O'Reilly's fate was likely by the end of the week. 
 
 The fact that none of these sources were willing to go on the record speaks to the delicate maneuvering underway. 
 
 The network's parent company, 21st Century Fox (FOX), will hold a board meeting on Thursday, a spokeswoman told CNNMoney. One of the sources said O'Reilly will be a primary topic. 
 
 The Murdochs, the men who control 21st Century Fox, are pointedly not commenting on any of this. 
 
 But conversations inside Fox have already turned to possible O'Reilly successors. 
 
 New York magazine's Gabriel Sherman, the author of a biography about ex-Fox News boss Roger Ailes, reported Tuesday that "the Murdochs are leaning toward announcing that O'Reilly will not return to the air." 
 
 Sherman cited "three sources with knowledge of the discussions" and said "no final decision has been made." 
 
 As CNNMoney has previously reported, there had been a split between Rupert Murdoch, the company's patriarch, and his sons James and Lachlan, with James advocating for O'Reilly's ouster. Lachlan was previously said to be in the middle. Sherman said Tuesday that Lachlan has "leaned more in his brother James's direction" in recent days. 
 
 All of this is a reaction to a New York Times story about the settlement payments that O'Reilly, Fox and 21st Century Fox paid to women who accused O'Reilly of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. 
 
 Last week 21st Century Fox confirmed that an outside law firm was investigating allegations against O'Reilly. 
 
 The same firm -- Paul, Weiss -- played an instrumental role in the eventual resignation of Ailes last summer. 
 
 O'Reilly's allies feel that he has been unfairly demonized by his accusers and a biased news media. 
 
 His opponents, including some influential voices inside 21st Century Fox, feel that O'Reilly has behaved badly over the years, that his behavior has been exposed, and that it's inappropriate for Fox News to continue his show. 
 
 "The O'Reilly Factor" is by far the highest-rated program on cable news. But most of O'Reilly's advertisers abandoned the show in the wake of the Times' story. 
 
 O'Reilly began a pre-planned vacation to Italy last week. When he announced the vacation on air, Fox News and O'Reilly's own outside spokesman said he'd be back on the "Factor" on April 24. Guest hosts are filling in this week. 
 
 O'Reilly remains in Italy while his team of agents and lawyers in New York work on his behalf. 
 
 Some sources on O'Reilly's side said that, as of Tuesday afternoon, they still expect he'll be back on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday. 
 
 But they acknowledged that none of them know for sure. 
 
 Fox recently renewed O'Reilly's contract with the knowledge that the Times' story was in the works. 
 
 The Times reported that the new deal was structured to give Fox "more leverage over him regarding his behavior." 
 
 That could be a factor in negotiations now. 
 
 If O'Reilly does resign, or if Fox takes him off the air, he'd be the third major player to leave the network in the span of nine months. Ailes' resignation last July was the result of sexual harassment charges by women at the network, including Megyn Kelly, who herself left Fox in January. O'Reilly defended Ailes when the women first came forward. 
 
 Kelly decided to leave Fox News in January. She is launching two new shows on NBC later this year. 
 
 Fox's audience has remained extraordinarily loyal to the network amid all of the off-air controversies. 
 
 And many of O'Reilly's fans are waiting for him to get back from vacation. 
 
 But on Tuesday, Fox would no longer confirm his April 24 return date. 
 
 When asked, "Will O'Reilly be returning to the Factor on April 24?," the Murdochs' top spokesperson did not respond. 
 
 -- CNN's Dylan Byers contributed reporting.
– Amid sexual harassment allegations and an exodus of advertisers from The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly is on vacation—or, as the Washington Post puts it, on "vacation." In a report that Fox has refuted, New York's Gabriel Sherman says several high-placed sources have told him that Tuesday night's show will be O'Reilly's last. Sherman says his Fox sources have told him that in a Murdoch family split similar to the one that preceded the departure of Roger Ailes last year, Fox CEO James Murdoch wants O'Reilly gone for good, while brother Lachlan and father Rupert Murdoch want him to stay. Sherman says lawyers who looked into Ailes' behavior are now taking a "deep dive" into list of allegations against O'Reilly. Mediaite notes that Sherman's sources have been spot-on about Fox developments the past, though a Fox spokesperson says O'Reilly's vacation was planned before the allegations surfaced and he will be back on the air April 24. O'Reilly said the same when he announced the vacation at the end of his show Tuesday night, the AP reports. "We all need R&R," said O'Reilly, who told viewers he usually takes a break around this time of year and he booked this trip last fall. This year, The O'Reilly Factor has had its best viewing figures in its 20-year history, though around 60 companies have pulled ads from the show, which now only has about half as much advertising time as it did a few weeks ago, the Post reports.