Letter O not working with eyedropper or clipping mask

I am trying to get some text to take on a gradient with the eyedropper tool.
I also tried using clipping masks.
Nothing I do is making the letter O do the same thing the other letters are doing.
The other letters with space in the middle of them like A or R work just fine.
But not O.

I have a gradient as a background

And some text that I outlined.

Then I select the group containing the outlined letters, and i use the eyedropper tool to click the background gradient. All of the letters look awesome, except the O. 

Can someone explain to me how I get the letter O, to do the same thing as the others?