Talkers magazine, the magazine of the talk radio business, has released its annual “Heavy Hundred” list. As has become commonplace, the list is chock full of TV news personalities, particularly towards the top.

Rush Limbaugh may be number one, but Fox News’ Sean Hannity was number two, and former FNCer Glenn Beck was number four. MSNBC’s Ed Schultz came in at number six, while Current TV’s Stephanie Miller held the number 12 slot and Alan Colmes was at 16.

Other TV news personalities on the list include Andrea Tantaros (24), Don Imus (35), Mike Huckabee (46), Herman Cain (59), Geraldo Rivera (62), Tom Sullivan (65) and Al Sharpton (90).

Fox News contributor Alan Colmes returned to “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, his first appearance since host Bill O’Reilly got into a shouting match with him last week.

“Bill, I wanted to thank you for doing couple’s counseling with me,” Colmes quipped.

O’Reilly dedicated almost an entire edition of his show earlier this week to the incident.

Cable news loves to talk about itself. The inflated egos and sense of worth assures that talking heads (and, yes, even anchors) will talk about themselves and their competition with some frequency.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly took it to the next logical step last night, dedicating multiple segments to last week’s argument with Alan Colmes, and O’Reilly’s anger issues. He started with his “Talking Points” segment:

He then brought on analysts Juan Williams and Mary Katherine Ham to get their takes on the matter. Later, he had Glenn Beck on to talk about the incident:
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It isn’t quite as intense as the recent dust-up between Sean Hannity and Rep. Keith Ellison But Bill O’Reilly went off on FNC contributor Alan Colmes on “The O’Reilly Factor” last night.

The conflict was centered around what government programs President Obama would cut. Colmes said that Medicare and Medicaid qualified, O’Reilly disagreed. The action starts around five minutes in:

October 2011 was a big one for cable news, with the Presidential debates and the final leg of the campaign generating huge numbers for cable news. Fox News was the biggest beneficiary, placing number one in primetime among all ad-supported cable channels for the month. The last time FNC placed number for the month was September 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

The ratings for October 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 3,459,000 Total Viewers / 795,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1,577,000 Total Viewers / 378,000 A25-54

Compared to the same month last year, the network is up in Total Viewers (+86% in primetime and +50% in Total Day) as well as in the key news demo of adults 25-54 viewers (+120% in primetime and +51% in Total Day).

In primetime, “The O’Reilly Factor” had its strongest month since the last Presidential campaign in October 2008, while “Hannity” posted its best numbers yet since moving to the Colmes-less format in November 2008. “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” saw its highest ratings since April 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

In daytime, “America’s Newsroom” and “Happening Now”each had their best month every in total viewers, with “America Live with Megyn Kelly” also posting a total viewership record. “Special Report with Bret Baier” had its best month in total viewers since Baier took over as anchor, while “The Five” had its best month ever in both total and demo viewers.

Bill O’Reilly has Bernard Goldberg. And increasingly, Sean Hannity is bringing on former MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan as a media commentator.

He was back on Fox News last night during coverage of the Mississippi and Alabama primaries in a segment that seemed to be an attempt at a counterpoint to the criticism Rush Limbaugh continues to receive over the Sandra Fluke flap but sold as a discussion of a left wing media takeover. It began with a series of talk radio clips from left-leaning hosts, including Ed Schultz, who Buchanan referred to as “my friend from MSNBC.”

Hannity added about Schultz, “there’s a lot more out on him, which I’m sure people will be able to find, if they’re interested.”

“I prefer the old Crossfire days, Pat,” said Hannity concluding the segment. “I prefer more speech, passionate speech, debate, dialogue.” What Hannity didn’t mention was he used to host a Crossfire-like show, with Alan Colmes for 12 years.

On FNC’s “Happening Now” this afternoon Jon Scott — who also hosts the “FOX News Watch” media analysis show — moderated a debate on the fairness of the news coverage of the end of the Iraq war — which culminated early Sunday morning as the final MRAP vehicle crossed into Kuwait. Alan Colmes and Rich Lowry went head-to-head and it turned into a pretty typical left-right, blue-red debate (apologies for the Hoodie Footie commercial at the top).

As Fox News continues to celebrate 15 years, this is Sean Hannity day. Hannity has the rare distinction of being in the same Fox News timeslot — 9pmET — for all 15 years of the network’s life (the first 12 years alongside liberal counterpart Alan Colmes). The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter caught up with Hannity in Atlanta, where he hosted his show last Thursday:

Mr. Hannity had come to Atlanta not to stick it to CNN — though that proved to be fun, too — but to take note of a remarkable anniversary in the city where he was plucked by Roger Ailes out of relative obscurity 15 years ago, when the Fox News Channel was born.

As for whether he’d make it to another 15 on FNC, Hannity is coy. “I serve at the pleasure of the president of the company,” he said, referring to Ailes, whose contract runs through 2013. “If he leaves, I might leave.” Indeed, last week Ailes said, “If I still feel like this [his doctor told him his chart reads like that of a 40-year-old's] and somebody offers me a job in June of ’13, I may just take it.”

Back to Hannity, he also got a visit from the hometown Atlanta Journal-Constitution during his Georgia stop. “Four of the greatest years of my life,” Hannity tells the AJC. “I can’t believe it’s been 15 years!”

(Photo: Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times)

Last week, “Fox News Watch” FNC’s media criticism show was criticized for not covering the hacking scandal involving its parent company, News Corp.

On this weekend’s edition, host Jon Scott led with the scandal, revealing the latest details — or almost latest, since the show was taped before Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton resigned late yesterday — and spending two segments of the half hour show on the growing scandal.

Cal Thomas, who last week said “I’m not touching it,” blamed News Corp.’s competitors for blowing up the story in order to end News Corp’s bid to take over BSkyB… which it did last week. “The left has been out to get News Corp. and especially Fox News Channel and the Murdoch family for years,” said Thomas.

Panelist and former Fox News host Alan Colmes, said don’t blame the left.

This knee jerk, ‘let’s blame the liberals, let’s blame the left. They’re out to get the News Corporation and out to get Mr. Murdoch.’ There has to be some personal responsibility and look, Mr. Murdoch seems to be taking that and put out an apology and visited the family of [Milly Dowler]. But there has to be personal responsibility and stop blaming the left and liberal media like it’s the liberals fault this happened.

The third segment of the show focused on the results of a Judicial Watch investigation into the White House shutting out Fox News Channel. And the final block dealt with the 10-year long Harry Potter series and the media’s coverage of it.

Video after the jump…

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Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto talked to Zap2it.com about living with MS, saying that he’s “reminded every day” of his chronic ailment — being that his signature raspy voice is a symptom of the autoimmune disease.

Along with hosting three shows — “Your World With Neil Cavuto” and “Cavuto on Business” on FNC and “Cavuto” on FBN — Cavuto is reminded of his MS daily:

I’m well aware of the restrictions on me. Days when it gets really bad, and Alan Colmes makes sense, then I know things are bad.

The Fox News anchor is not alone at Fox with his MS — meteorologist Janice Dean is battling the same disease.