Hannity & Colmes
| Hannity & Colmes | |
|---|---|
 Former Title card for Hannity & Colmes | |
| Genre | Political program |
| Presented by | Sean Hannity (conservative) Alan Colmes (liberal[1]) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Production location | New York City |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox News Channel |
| Release | October 6, 1996 – January 9, 2009 |
Hannity & Colmes was an American television show on Fox News Channel, hosted by Sean Hannity[2] and Alan Colmes,[3] who respectively presented a neoconservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered in October of 1996, and the final episode aired on January 9, 2009. It was the precursor to the current Hannity series, which currently airs in the same timeslot.
In addition to politics, the show featured debate about soft news stories, such as the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal or the death of Anna Nicole Smith, or one-on-one interviews with politicians, commonly with the host who most closely shared the guest's political ideology. The show's format resembled a former CNN show called Crossfire, which similarly had co-hosts on both the left and right.
It was announced on November 24, 2008 that Alan Colmes would leave the show at the end of the year. On December 11, 2008, it was announced that Hannity would take over the timeslot alone with a new show simply titled Hannity, which would have a format closer to his weekend program Hannity's America. January 9, 2009 was the last airing of Hannity & Colmes with January 12, 2009 marking the beginning of the new Hannity program.
Guest hosts
When either Hannity or Colmes were unavailable to do the broadcast a guest host of the missing host's political ideology was used. Some guests hosts were otherwise normal contributors to the program while others became regular fill-ins for a time.
| Hannity | Colmes |
|---|---|
Reception
The show was both praised and criticized by viewers and organizations for the concept and production of the show. Ratings-wise, it was long the second highest-rated program in U.S. cable news behind The O'Reilly Factor and averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month prior to the 2008 presidential election.[1]
Alan Colmes was touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal", but stated to USA Today that "I'm quite moderate".[4] He sometimes took more conservative positions than other prominent liberals, such as supporting Rudy Giuliani for mayor of New York City and agreeing with the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation" techniques by the government of the United States. He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick".[5] Liberal commentator Al Franken lambasted Colmes in his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, accusing him of refusing to ask tough questions during debates and neglecting to challenge erroneous claims made by Hannity or his guests.[5] Franken also claimed that Colmes did not speak as much as Hannity during the show. Some critics also questioned whether or not both hosts receive equal time to interview guests.[5] Some of Colmes' liberal critics, notably commentators at Media Matters for America, praised him toward the end of the show's run, however. He then began citing their reports in his confrontations with some of his conservative guests on the program.[6][7]
A study by Media Matters conducted through January and February of 2006 found that the number of conservatives and Republicans brought on as guests outnumbered the number of liberals and Democrats by margins of 72%–28% in January, and 67%–33% in February. Of the solo interviews that were conducted on the show, 80% of the interviews are conducted with conservatives and Republicans.[8] However, the ratio of conservatives to liberals during that time frame may have been the result of many calls for liberals to avoid interviews on the Fox News Channel.[9]
On January 5, the beginning of Colmes's last week, he was a guest on The Colbert Report in a spoof called Colbert & Colmes, which parodied criticisms of Hannity & Colmes. In addition to being given a list of pre-approved responses to Stephen Colbert's opinions and forced to sit on a stool (making him appear shorter than his co-host), Colmes's face was covered by the on-air graphics while Colbert discussed issues of the day. Colbert "fired" Colmes by the end of the show for pointing out fallacies in his logic.[10]
An October 15, 2008 study by the Pew Research Center found that Hannity & Colmes watchers ranked among the best politically-informed news audiences, behind The New Yorker, National Public Radio, and Hardball with Chris Matthews.[11]
References
- ^ "Hannity & Colmes - SourceWatch".
- ^ "Sean Hannity Bio". FoxNews.com. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
- ^ Alan Colmes' Bio, FoxNews.com October 10, 2002
- ^ Robin, DeRosa (1995-02-01), "Tuning in to high-wattage talk show hosts", USA Today, Gannett Company, Inc., p. LIFE; Pg. 7D, Alan Colmes,
I think I'm quite moderate ... I follow Limbaugh on about 100 stations and I precede other conservatives, so I may be the only person giving a different point of view.
{{citation}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ a b c An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined" by Steve Rendall, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, November/December 2003 Cite error: The named reference "rendall" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Colmes noted missed opportunities to eliminate Zarqawi prior to war that went unreported by media after terrorist's death, Media Matters for America
- ^ Colmes confronted Williams with inconsistent statements on No Child Left Behind, Media Matters for America
- ^ Unfair & imbalanced: Republicans and conservatives dominate on Hannity & Colmes, Media Matters for America
- ^ Associated Press: Liberals Going After Fox Advertisers, David Bauder, Jun 27, 2007 (retrieved on 9 Jan 09)
- ^ Roger Catlin (20090106). ""Colmes joins Colbert"". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 20090109.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ http://pewresearch.org/pubs/993/who-knows-news-what-you-read-or-view-matters-but-not-your-politics
External links
- Official Hannity & Colmes website (now redirects to Hannity's website)
- News Hounds: Hannity & Colmes
- Hannity & Colmes at IMDb
- Template:Tv.com