For twelve years, Alan Colmes suffered as the (nearly) lone token liberal voice crying out in the vast right-wing maelstrom that is Fox News. As one half of the 9 p.m. stalwart Hannity & Colmes, the commentator and radio host lent a sense of even-handedness to the network's prime-time lineup, coming sandwiched between Bill O'Reilly's Factor and On the Record with Greta van Susteren. Now he's leaving the show to develop a weekend program and focus more on his radio duties. He'll remain on as a liberal opinionator for the network. The show was the second most popular on the network for most of its run, and frequently captured the No. 1 spot in the hour.

But now that Colmes is leaving, some are wondering whether another liberal voice will replace him, or whether the popular Sean Hannity will just take over the show on his own and model it after his Hannity's America weekend show. After all, if viewers want to hear a lefty voice they're probably already tuning in to Rachel Maddow over at MSNBC. A straight conservative show might better capitalize on the Factor lead-in. We didn't think this was really possible, but is the battle between the two cable networks about to get even more polarized?

Alan Colmes to Leave "Hannity & Colmes" [HuffPo]
One Half of ‘Hannity & Colmes’ Is Leaving [TV Decoder/NYT]