Alan Colmes to Depart Top Rated Hannity & Colmes

Breitbart.com ^ | 24 NOV 08 | dcbryan1

[DCBryan1]

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, “I approached Bill Shine (FNC’s Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years.”

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com’s The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

Shine said, “We’re very sorry to see Alan reach this decision but we understand his desire to seek other creative challenges in his career. We value his incredible hard work in making Hannity & Colmes the most successful debate program on cable news and we’re going to miss him on the show. Thankfully, he will begin developing a weekend pilot for us.”

FOX News Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Roger Ailes added, “Alan is one of the key reasons why FOX News has been such a remarkable success. We’re sad to see him leave the program but we look forward to his ongoing contributions to the network.”

Hannity & Colmes is the only FNC program which has remained in the same timeslot for 12 years, catapulting to number one in 2003 and never relinquishing the top spot. The second highest-rated program in cable news behind only The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month of October and is poised to mark 60 consecutive months at number one at the end of November.

Hannity added, “Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he’s been a great friend which is rare in this industry — I’ll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner.”

Throughout his 12 year tenure on Hannity & Colmes, Colmes has interviewed numerous key political figures, including: President Elect Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), DNC Chairman Howard Dean and former Vice President Al Gore.

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour general news service covering breaking news as well as political, entertainment and business news. For nearly seven years, FNC has been the most watched cable news channel in the nation. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 90 million homes.

[do the dhue]

ALAN CUT AND RUN COLMES!

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] gone, gone, the damage done...

Thanks Ernest.

[Grampa Dave]

Hopefully the lib replacement will be more tolerable.

When Butthead aka Colmes got excited and started lie at high speed, his eye brows arched up.

We would put the tv on mute and watch him lie and arch his eye brows.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Alan, we hardly knew ye..."

Now, the question is who will replace him? If Ed Grimley were still around...his sense of irony might work as a liberal commentator duking it out with Hannity but Ed seems more the type for The O'Reilly Factor where the host gets to smack people. Or Fred Armisen maybe, but only if he appears as Barney Frank. So Susan Estrich, Lanny Davis, Phil Donahue, James Carville, Paris Hilton? Or Stephen Colbert? For subs they should have Megyn Kelly and Stephen Colbert team up. Or Ann Coulter and James Carville. Strong conservative women pumped up on steroids going after weaker, less attractive liberal men.

They could go with Carville, which would be a logical choice for FOX, but he won't have the interesting retro hairdos and blowdry effects of Alan, reminiscent of Gene Rayburn and Ray Manzarek, which brought in the '60s-era liberal demographic. Alan's the only commentator with retro hair on TV now. They should try out a few people for a while. Arianna Huffington might be a good match for Hannity.

[allmendream]

Its going to be tough to find a liberal idiot even dumber than Sean Hannity (lord love an Irishman, but poor ol’ Sean is a few neurons short of complete cognitive function).

[radar101]

YAAYYY!

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

He tried it once back in the mid-90s, his show sadly flopped big time.

[headstamp 2]

“But where ever will they find another leftist idiot to take his place? /s”

They’ll bring in Katrina Vanden Shovel.

With the election of Obama and the leftward tilt of Congress, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more left wing leaning hosts and shows on Fox News in the coming years. It’s all about following trends and marketing as sick to my stomach that it makes me.

[Lovergirl]

what about the hannity and Susan Estrich show (see above)?

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

You don’t think Arianna Huffington would be a good partner for Hannity? How about Joy Behar?

[scannell]

Effective When?

[allmendream]

I said dumber, not lacking in any discernible intellect at all. You overshot the mark! ;)

[scannell]

How about Randi Rhodes?

[Reagan Man]

Al Franken once tried to attack Sean Hannity at the Fox News studio. Doubt we’ll ever see the two of them together.

[Ol' Sparky]

The perfect liberal co-host for Hannity would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hannity loves the guy and he is further to the left than Colmes. Now, if the people of California will just recall him.

[Senator Goldwater]

BRING IN KIRSTEN POWERS!!

---

I’d sign for this.

[Uncle Meat]

Beckel is a violent thug with a criminal past.

Put him on at least once and have Ted Nugent come waltzing in unannounced .I 'd give anything to see the Motor City Madman put a broadhead up his ass.

[MadelineZapeezda]

BRING IN KIRSTEN POWERS!! MUCH EASIER ON THE EYES!

While we are on that subjust, I hope they bring Pat Cadell....he is my favorite lib.....or Camille Paglia!

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[Ann Archy]

The only person who could be WORSE to watch than Colmes would be BOB BECKEL!!

When he was on CROSSFIRE with Lynne Cheney on Subday night, he would have to apologize to her NUMEROUS times because he had been so VICIOUS to her.