Hannity minus Colmes is a cable juggernaut, pulling more viewers than all of his competitors combined.

9 PM - P2+ (25-54) (35-64)
Hannity–2,835,000 viewers (703,000) (1,155,000)
Larry King Live—934,000 viewers (319,000) (468,000)
Rachel Maddow Show –1,341,000 viewers (441,000) (723,000)
Saving GM: Inside Crisis– 293,000 viewers (167,000) (183,000)
Lou Dobbs- 597,000 viewers (247,000) (339,000)

Actually, Colmes may do fine on his own. My old blog--UNCoRRELATED, started out as a Hannity & Colmes experiment, but it became clear that my partner and I (Greg Prince) were just pissing off each other's core audiences.

The bottom line is that for any kind of opinion show, the opinions have to be bold and compelling, and that necessarily negates the kind of deference to differing opinions that one might find in mixed company. Inevitably the assertions about "those people" begin to grate. I note that the "other" mixed blog--"The Moderate Voice" is pretty much a left-wing enterprise these days.

I caught a few minutes of O'Reilly this evening where he had a "Democrat spokesperson" on to defend the notion of amnesty for illegal aliens. I consider that the subject is discussed in terms way too simplistic to be useful, but the real barrier to discussion was Ms. Menendez' characterization to anyone who challenged her point of view as "right-wing extremists".

Yeah--let's have lunch. Not.

The Hannity show has the potential to be a lot better show that it has been, because it becomes a lot safer to discuss the issues without the instant polarization that Colmes represents.