Who will Sean Hannity bully now?

Alan Colmes is leaving "Hannity & Colmes," the Fox News show he co-hosted.

Published November 24, 2008 10:45PM (EST)

Fox News viewers will soon have to find someone new to represent all that is impure and unholy in the world: Alan Colmes is leaving "Hannity & Colmes," the show where he plays liberal foil to co-host -- and star -- Sean Hannity.

A press release put out by the network quotes Colmes as saying, "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."

The New York Times reports that FNC may not replace Colmes, and Hannity may end up hosting by himself. (The show's working title was, after all, "Hannity & LTBD" -- Liberal to be Determined.) That's somewhat surprising, considering that the show's conceit was always that it stuck to the network's "Fair and Balanced" slogan, at least nominally, though in reality -- as I discussed in this 2007 article about all the "Fox News Democrats" -- Colmes really served as a nominal liberal to be thrown to the figurative lions, in the form of Sean Hannity.

Colmes will be staying on at the network as a commentator, and will continue his radio show, which is broadcast by Fox News Radio. He'll also reportedly be developing a new weekend show for FNC.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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