Alan Colmes to leave sean hannity; watch for big changes at fox news

After 12 years, Colmes will leave Hannity & Colmes. Fox News Channel announced Monday he'll be gone at the end of the year

Alan will stay with the network to develop a weekend show, and expand his radio show. Read his blog is here.

The move is seen as another sign that in the post-Bush political landscape, old media forms must change to meet the new challenges of a different electorate; a younger audience that's so far eluding talk teevee; and aggressive competitors.

H&C is a very successful, seminal brand for Fox, one that helped put them at the top, and keep them there for so long.

To change H&C is significant, indeed.

Liberal commentators are beginning to have their day on cable, and pushing back against Fox's long time dominance. The success and steady growth of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann against O'Reilly, and the fast rise of Rachel Maddow who's gained rating share opposite H&C, and beats Larry King frequently, has made cable suits take notice.

CNN has made inroads and in some slots begun to take back its old lead. It's developing new voices like Campbell Brown, and Jane Velez-Mitchell.

What this means is as yet unknown. Fox must make changes -- purely conservative teevee cannot dominate cable much longer. Is Alan being shuffled to the weekend dustbin? Or will he be groomed to fill a spot in primer time? Will a new liberal be brought in to counter Hannity" Will new progressives be groomed for more prominent spots on Fox?

Leaving what he described as one of the longest marriages in cable news," Alan Colmes said, "I'm proud that both Sean and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes, who drew criticism from the left for sometimes playing the punching bag to right-wing heavy weight tag-teams led by Hannity, against him, says it was his choice to leave.

"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," Colmes said.

Comments

[adam hartung]

Recognizing that Fox first caught CNN, which had practically 100% share in cable news, we need to give Fox credit for a great accomplishment. That MSNBC has figured out how to catch Fox and CNN is a really significant accomplishment. Understanding how each did this can help us all compete more effectively to improve sales and profits - even in a tough economy like this one. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com

[Duffman]

IMO Alan Colmes will never command a spot in prime time. If Fox wanted to pull a coup, they would try to hire Rachel Maddow away from MSNBC and hook her up with Hannity to generate some real fireworks. [Doubt Sean would be up for that tho, as it w/be too risky for him - she would likely show him up]. Colmes was always and will always be the sidekick type of personality. He has talent but is not telegenic and takes too long to make his point and when he does make his point it's weaker than it should be. His television days are likely over. Hannity too needs reviving and it may take some other personality paired with him to do that...otherwise he too made fade, as I predict Rush will...soon.

[chuck]

I posted on a TeeVee blog this morning that I though Rachel Madcow would be a wonderful one to debate with Hannity on a regular basis. It is too bad that she is tied to a contract with the inferior network.
Maybe that professor Hill guy, or Kirsten Powers. I think that Bob Beckel and Hannity would end up in a fist fight. Geraldine Ferraro might be good.
Who knows, but Colmes was getting stale and it would be boring with just Hannity.

[AuthenticAndrew]

Um why would FOX give a liberal his own show? Are all the MSNBC viewers going to change to FOX just to watch that limp sellout? I don't think he has any intention of staying with the network.

[KS]

Liberals are on FOX, you blind fools - FOX is balanced, but not necessarily fair and balanced. I am not a Hannity fan and Colmes is not the best spokesman from the left (Bob Bechel, Carville, Kirstin Powers would be better).
However, the reasoning is not what the progressives on this blog would blather about.

FOX is not that different from CNN in that is sensationalizes stuff that emulates the National Enquirer because Joe Q Public seems to be more interested in that. There is a shortage of conservatives in the print media, which is oversight on their part.

[susan g.]

Sen Hannity would never let an A-list lib be the other half of his show. He is where he is because Alan is cerebral, a nice-guy, and almost timid in nature. He always come out looking weak. But put someone like John Kerry, Paul Begala, etc., there are many liberals who would have never let Hannity's fake arguments and rhetorical tricks get by. He is a bully, and uses the tactic of running out the clock in the question, then interrupting in the middle of the answer. It's not debate, it's schoolyard pigpile. He never uses these tactics against someone he agrees with... he never even asks people like Palin a follow-up question. Hannity could never dominate in a debate where he didn't control the rules. I teach high school rhetoric, and Hannity couldn't make it in debate where I teach, let alone college debate. He can only survive in a forum that's been created for him to succeed. It's show biz that is hurting America.

[chuck]

I would love to see a strong debater with Hannity. Please, not John Kerry. The man is smart enough. No doubt about that. But can you imagine that stiff personality night after night. The show would suffer. Steal Maddow away from the inferior network. That would be watchable.

[KS]

Maddow might be interesting - she would challenge him, but MSNBC would be hurting if she left and that would be too f'ing bad. It's hard to image them debating in the same room - since they are so diametrically opposed on their views, but never say never.

[sparky]

Excellent post, susan g.

[joanie]

She wouldn't be caught dead on a faux news channel like Fox.

I saw somebody give Hannity his due. Can't remember who it was. Wasn't it posted on BW?

I'll try to think of it.

You'd think klueless, that out of all those liberals on Fox, they could find somebody.

[KS]

Ph(Jo)anie has FNDS - Fox News Derangement syndrome. Why ? Because Liberalism is a mental disorder.

Hannity is too much of an ideologue along the lines of Malloy and Ed Schultz, but of the opposite persuasion. There are enough liberals on Fox so they ought to be able to find one in house to replace Colmes and make it more interesting.

[PugetSound]

wouldn't it be great if the could fill in colmes with mort kondrake? just a joking.
i love colmes line about now that he un-hannitized america. 'i got a dem congress, senate, and presidency. my work here is done.'
colmes never got much street cred from the air america or nut roots but he had a difficult task. just watch this clip and try not to laugh as colmes gets coulter to agree with him.

watch the last two minutes of this 5 minute clip