The Daily News reports that Sean Hannity lost half his audience after the 2012 election. His MSNBC and CNN competitors have mostly held on to their ratings.

The Daily News writes:

According to Nielsen numbers, Hannity lost around half of his audience in the weeks after the election, while his Fox News colleague Bill O’Reilly — who steadfastly refuses to identify himself politically as a conservative — retained around 70% of his audience.

...

It got even worse for Hannity in the “money demo” of viewers 25-54, who are prized by advertisers.

With this group, Hannity held onto less than half his preelection audience. O’Reilly, on the other hand, kept almost 70%.

And through the early part of December, Maddow actually beat Hannity in the coveted group — a shocking turn, because until the election, Hannity was unassailable by any of his rivals, at least in terms of ratings.

Of course, "retained around 70%" also means that O'Reilly lost about 30%. The conveniontal wisdowm, according to the article is that Hannity's viewers fled because they were so stunned by President Obama's win - after being led to believe by the show that he would almost surely lose. My own theory is that there is a realization among reasonable conservatives that Hannity's brand of rhetoric is neither insightful nor helpful to their side.

In any event, I suspect at least some of those viewers will return eventually. In the meanwhile, Hannity has reaped what he very deliberately sowed.