Sean Hannity is now the most influential radio host in America according to a new ranking from Talkers Magazine. The Fox News host beat out radio legend, and the magazine’s longtime previous number one, Rush Limbaugh.
“Aside from the hosts whose sheer numbers and fame demand their inclusion in this list, the selection process is subjective with the goal being to create a list reflective of the industry’s diversity and total flavor as well as giving credit where credit is due,” reads a magazine description of the how the rankings were chosen.
“We acknowledge that it is as much art as science and that the results are arguable.”
It’s only the second time in the list’s 24 year history that Limbaugh hasn’t been in the top spot. In 2005, Howard Stern was first after leaving terrestrial radio for a nine-figure deal with Sirius Satellite Radio.
“Sean has had an unprecedented year in talk radio,” Talkers editor Michael Harrison told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Even last year we had a very intense discussion among our editors whether Sean should have been on top. We held out another year out of our respect for what Rush Limbaugh means to the industry and to the format.”
Rounding out the top five were Dave Ramsey, Mark Levin and Howard Stern.
Indeed, Hannity – always an influential talk radio host — has seen his profile skyrocket since President Trump took office. The president is said to be a regular viewer of Hannity’s prime-time Fox News show and the two are known to speak frequently after he comes off the air.
With the departure of Bill O’Reilly last year, Hannity has emerged as the ratings leader of the network and his program has largely served as an anchor at a time when Fox News has had bad press, a number of scandals and legal troubles. The channel has also stuck with the host in what otherwise might career-ending scandals for Hannity elsewhere, including his failure to disclose a legal relationship with Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Fox News' Jesse Watters: His 10 Most Offensive Moments (Videos)
Shortly after O'Reilly was ousted from Fox News, Watters took his own vacation from the network after coming under fire for making a comment about First Daughter Ivanka Trump, which some interpreted as inappropriate sexual innuendo.
Watters' recurring segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" involved sending the host out to various events and locations across the country for man-on-the-street style interviews that mock various cultural subgroups in their own communities. In a 2016 segment, Watters went after Italian Americans at the Feast of San Gennaro festival.
One of Watters' most controversial segments came in the form of a 2016 venture into New York's Chinatown. In the heavily criticized piece, Watters turned his signature schtick on Chinese Americans, resulting in a blatantly racist segment that played on Asian stereotypes and openly mocked its subjects.
Watters' October 2016 venture to the Amish community in Pennsylvania was turned into one recurring punchline -- over the fact that the Amish don't vote or pay much attention to presidential politics. "Lucky you," he tells several people.
In 2007, O'Reilly sent Watters to ambush Bill Moyers in the street after the PBS host released a documentary criticizing the Bush administration for the Iraq War. Bill O'Reilly would later go on to call that segment a contributing factor in Moyers' decision to retire.
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In 2015, Watters went to Penn Station to criticize the "rise of homelessness" in New York City, pointedly asking those sleeping at the station about their drug habits and what they did to make money on the streets.
On the anniversary of 9/11, Watters went to a convention for Muslim Americans to ask them about terrorism and Islamic radicals. When a woman criticized the media for linking terrorism to the Islamic religion, Watters and O'Reilly both balked at the suggestion that "Christian terrorism" could even exist.
In 2009, Amanda Terkel, then the managing editor of Think Progress, wrote a column in which she said she was "followed, harassed, and ambushed" by Watters while on vacation after she ran a column criticizing Bill O'Reilly for his comments toward rape survivors.
Watters was caught on video getting into a fight at the 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner afterparty with The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim. It was later reported that Grim approached Watters with a camera asking him to apologize to Terkel for his behavior in 2009.
O'Reilly sent Watters to Philadelphia for a tone-deaf segment about racism in which he mocked the Black Lives Matter movement, criticized political correctness and generally failed to elevate the conversation surrounding race relations in America.
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Shortly after O'Reilly was ousted from Fox News, Watters took his own vacation from the network after coming under fire for making a comment about First Daughter Ivanka Trump, which some interpreted as inappropriate sexual innuendo.
