Tamron Hall Exits NBC After Learning She Was Losing ‘Today’ Slot
On Wednesday NBC announced that news anchor Tamron Hall was leaving the network. This will be the first lose since hiring Megyn Kelly from Fox News Channel.
Hall was part of NBC’s four-hour “Today” Show, which she co-hosted the third hour of airing at 9 a.m. ET with Al Roker. Last week Hall and Roker were supposedly told they were losing their hour to Kelly, who was promised a slot in NBC’s daytime lineup.
Hall also hosted an hour of news programming each morning on MSNBC, but NBC said she had her last day with the network on Tuesday. NBC tried to convince Hall to stay past the end of her contract this month, but she declined.
Following her departure, Hall, 46, was not immediately available for comment, said a spokeswoman. In an NBC statement, obtained by the Associated Press, she said, “The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I’m grateful. I’m also very excited about the next chapter. To all my great colleagues, I will miss you and I will be rooting for you.”
She joined the MSNBC staff in 2007 after working in local news in Chicago for a decade. In 2004 she lost her older sister in a murder in Houston and became active in efforts to fight domestic violence after telling her sister’s story.
Right now NBC is weighing two options for newly hired Kelly: hosting the 9 a.m. hour, after Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie do the first two. The other option is Kelly hosting at 10 a.m. and that hour’s current duo, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb moving up an hour to 9. The network says Kelly is expected to start her new show in the fall.
In recent years NBC has failed to give the 9 a.m. hour a true identity. Last fall the network attempted to bring on Billy Bush, but he lost his job after an old tape of a sexually offensive banter with Donald Trump was released.
Hall was also the host of the 11 a.m. hour on MSNBC. Her twitter page doesn’t list NBC in her bio.