Bye Alan. I wish I could say you'll be missed ...

... but most conservatives we know just aren't fond of Alan Colmes. Brian Maloney, of The Radio Equalizer, got the scoop this morning:

After a remarkable twelve year run, Alan Colmes is set to leave FOX News Channel's top-rated Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year, according to key sources.

Though the decision was said to have been made by Colmes himself, it is not yet known what future role he will play at the network.

There have been no industry rumblings regarding the liberal host heading for another network and his radio show remains syndicated by FOX News Radio. That means he's probably likely to remain there in some capacity.

Also unknown at this time is who will replace take Alan's place at the Hannity & Colmes Show, if anyone.

So far, Colmes has not commented on the move at his site, but syndicated talker Lars Larson tells your Radio Equalizer that he's asked Colmes to appear on his show to discuss the situation.

Here's the FOX News press 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."

Throughout his 12 year tenure on Hannity & Colmes, Colmes has interviewed numerous key political figures, including: President Elect Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), DNC Chairman Howard Dean and former Vice President Al Gore.

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour general news service covering breaking news as well as political, entertainment and business news. For nearly seven years, FNC has been the most watched cable news channel in the nation. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 90 million homes.

We're not going to get all weepy over his departure because frankly we don't find him as compelling as Hannity does. We actually thought he was rather boring, and highly partisan. That's one of the reasons why we quit watching H&C. We do hope that Alan moves onto better things, and that he enjoys his time away from FOX full-time. Other than that, there isn't a lot to say about this.

Although I'll say this much. I don't think it's Alan who should have left the show. I'd have preferred he stuck around and I personally think that other cuts from other networks should be done over this one, but it's Alan's decision. Now if Keith Olbermann could just get it through his thick skull that he sucks as a political commentator as much as he sucked as a sports commentator. Or maybe the execs at MSNBC are literally numb from the brain down.

Publius II