Hannity & Colmes

Guest hosts

When either Hannity or Colmes were not available, a guest host replaced the missing host while using the same political ideology. Some guest hosts were normal contributors to the show, while others became regular fill-ins.

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.

Alan Colmes was touted by Fox as "a hard-hitting liberal", but stated to USA Today that "I'm quite moderate". 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 torture techniques by the government of the United States. He was characterized by several newspapers as being Hannity's "sidekick". 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.

A study by Media Matters conducted through January and February 2006 stated 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 were with conservatives and Republicans.

References

References

1. Broadcast live in Eastern time zone, delayed in other time zones via Fox network affiliates.
2. "Sean Hannity Bio". [[FoxNews.com]].
3. [https://www.foxnews.com/story/alan-colmes-bio Alan Colmes' Bio], [[FoxNews.com]] October 10, 2002
4. "Hannity and Colmes split up - Yahoo! News".
5. Robin, DeRosa. (1995-02-01). "Tuning in to high-wattage talk show hosts". Gannett Company, Inc..
6. [http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1158 An Aggressive Conservative vs. a "Liberal to be Determined"] by Steve Rendall, [[Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting]], November/December 2003
7. link. (January 5, 2007 , [[Media Matters for America]])
8. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200501310003 Colmes confronted Williams with inconsistent statements on No Child Left Behind] {{Webarchive. link. (2009-02-26 , [[Media Matters for America]])
9. [http://mediamatters.org/items/200603300010 Unfair & imbalanced: Republicans and conservatives dominate on ''Hannity & Colmes''] {{Webarchive. link. (February 3, 2008 , [[Media Matters for America]])