When Tamron Hall walked away from the “Today” show in 2017 after 10 years of employment, she immediately knew it was the right decision, which the veteran journalist recently talked about.
At the time, Hall co-hosted the third hour of the morning program with Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Willie Geist in a segment called “Today’s Take.” But the show was abruptly canceled to make room for conservative host Megyn Kelly‘s show “Megyn Kelly Today.”
According to an industry insider, Hall was told of the replacement just minutes before she was supposed to go on air for “Today’s Take,” and she quit right on the spot. And that was after NBC offered her a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal to stay.
Kelly’s show ended up getting canceled in October of 2018 after she said it was OK for people to wear blackface on Halloween.
Hall — who’s new talk show “The Tamron Hall Show” debuts on Sept. 9 — was asked if she felt justice was served when Kelly was ousted, and she said no.
“Megyn’s success or not, I already knew they made the wrong choice when I left the door,” said Hall on Monday at ABC’s Television Critics Association summer tour.
“I would never measure myself against her success or perceived lack thereof, whether that show made it or not. I knew I was making the right decision for me,” she added. “I didn’t know what could come after leaving that situation. I’m glad and fortunate this is the end result.”
Hall also admitted to a feeling of rejection when “Today’s Take” was replaced with Kelly’s show.
“We’ve all been the kid who didn’t get picked to be on the kickball team,” she analogized.
Hall also described the feeling of being replaced as getting a “gut punch.”
Elsewhere in the panel discussion, the Texas native said her talk show will have celebrity and non-celebrity guests alike, and it’ll follow the traditional talk show format but also have a lot of new twists.
