Via Newser:

“Breaking: Alan Colmes is leaving his position as co-host of “Hannity & Colmes” at the end of 2008.

According to the FNC release, he will stay on as a liberal commentator for FNC and as host of The Alan Colmes Show on FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program for FNC.

Colmes has been co-host of the 9pmET program for 12 years.

The news was first reported by Radio Equalizer.

Click continued to see the full release…

FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year.

In announcing his decision, Colmes said, “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.”

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com’s The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

Shine said, “We’re very sorry to see Alan reach this decision but we understand his desire to seek other creative challenges in his career. We value his incredible hard work in making Hannity & Colmes the most successful debate program on cable news and we’re going to miss him on the show. Thankfully, he will begin developing a weekend pilot for us.”

FOX News Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Roger Ailes added, “Alan is one of the key reasons why FOX News has been such a remarkable success. We’re sad to see him leave the program but we look forward to his ongoing contributions to the network.”

Hannity & Colmes is the only FNC program which has remained in the same timeslot for 12 years, catapulting to number one in 2003 and never relinquishing the top spot. The second highest-rated program in cable news behind only The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month of October and is poised to mark 60 consecutive months at number one at the end of November.

Hannity added, “Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he’s been a great friend which is rare in this industry — I’ll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner.”

I was never a fan of Colmes, and often thought of him as “Oh by the way”, when viewing the show. No doubt Hannity is the star as evidenced by his books outselling Colmes, as well as Colmes rather anemic radio show ratings as compared to Hannity’s.

Nevertheless, as liberals go he was often less rabid than the usual fare and sometimes made a point or two.

The large question is who will come in to replace him?

Nightmare: Arianna Huffington, which would require a translator – ass-clown to english. Or Bob Beckel, which would more entertaining than anything, and Hannity usually dispatches him as easily as he did Colmes.