Television host and author Tamron Hall’s rise to success was not just something that fell into her lap. Her 30-year commitment to journalism has prepared her for this major moment in her career and with the recent announcement of her Emmy-winning Tamron Hall Show getting picked up for not one but two more seasons, it is safe to say that she is not going anywhere.
“It was very important to me when I launched the show the first season that the intention be firm and focused,” Hall tells me exclusively at Forbes about the Tamron Hall Show. “That’s why we say Let’s talk about it. My strength is not my humor. My strength is not my celebrity connections. It really is the ability, I hope, after 30 years of being a journalist, to talk to people. And that means people who live their lives in the public spotlight as a celebrity and those who don’t. That’s the best of our show when we have a mix of a major Hollywood name with someone everyday who’s experiencing the same thing.”
Currently in its third season and picked up through season five, the Tamron Hall Show does not shy away from having difficult conversations, including timely topics like mental health. Hall finds those types of discussions as important areas needing to be addressed openly today, something she wishes she had the resources to early on in her own journalism career.
“I was a reporter for 30 years. Started out as a general assignment reporter in Dallas/Fort Worth. When I started out, many of the stories that you end up covering honestly are crime. One of the things that struck me early on is that a firefighter or a police officer, they have very specific training in how to handle trauma but as a journalist, I can say that after 30 years of covering some of the most heartbreaking things imaginable, I never had a news organization come to me and say Would you like therapy? or We’re offering counseling to deal with what you saw or what you experienced. So over time, the stories and the interviews started to weigh on me and I was looking for a way to talk about.”
Hall says she found the therapy she never received through writing her newly released book titled As the Wicked Watch, a fictional story inspired by her real-life experiences. Centered a reporter named Jordan Manning, As the Wicked Watch follows Manning’s journey as she unravels the mystery behind the deaths of two young black women while working to track down a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.
Even as Hall reveals to me that she is busy writing the second book in her Jordan Manning series right now, she will next be bringing her professional knowledge, as well as motivation from her own personal tragedies, to Court TV in 2022 with her new true-crime series Someone They Knew...with Tamron Hall.
“After completing this first [book] in the series of Jordan Manning, I was approached by Court TV to launch this new series Someone They Knew. And obviously, being deeply personal, my sister’s death is an unsolved crime. Early on in the investigation, I was told by investigators flat out this was someone she knew. We couldn’t prove it but they strongly believed that the person of interest was someone she knew. So when I saw that the team behind this show were focused on what we can learn from these cases versus ‘the glam crime’ that’s become so popular and that I’m deeply sensitive to and I think viewers at home have become sensitive to it, that they were going to take care of the story and take care of what we would get from it, that’s when I decided to join forces with them.”
With everything going on in Hall’s universe these days and her passion to tell people’s stories with unwavering truth and respect, I asked the successful business leader how she juggles all the things in her life today.
“You know, I don’t juggle it. There are days that I’m in the corner and I succumb to the pressure and I cry and I think Oh wow, this is a lot. What am I doing? Then there are the days that I do this show, I write a couple of chapters of the book, I read a few scripts from the new Court TV show, and then I make my son dinner and I feel like I’m a superhero. That’s the joy of being a businessperson, that is the joy of being a creator is acknowledging that everyday the perfect won’t live in that space.”
In April 2019, Hall gave birth to her son, Moses, 2, who Hall proudly credits as her co-host on the Tamron Hall Show, occasionally sharing heartwarming moments between them on her social media. So how is Hall able to make time with her son the priority around the fast-paced demands of her growing work schedule?
“You fight for it, whether you are in a relationship with a significant other or in this relationship of parent/child. You fight for it and I fight for that time. I do it for obvious reasons because I love him but also in my now 51st year of life, I want the next generation of journalists and next generation of women who go into this field or who become entrepreneurs like myself to understand - Yes, there will be sacrifices made but they don’t have to be made as deep as when I was growing up in the business, where if you turned your phone off, you would be punished in the workplace or if you didn’t work 24/7 and answer immediately at dinner, that you would be seen as someone who wasn’t dedicated and focused. What I try to do is lead by example with my team and say Listen, it’s Thanksgiving. Do not call me and I’m not calling you. Enjoy your time with your family. And so, that’s something that I could’ve only learned now in this form of my life that it is - as a 51-year-old mom leading this show.”
During a time in both business and entertainment when pay equity and overall fairness in the workplace continue to be necessary subject matters, Hall is aware of the hurdles that remain in front of her and in front of many women like her. So, I asked Hall how she has noticed her approach towards business, salary, and contract negotiations changed or evolved throughout the years.
“It is still evolving, to be honest with you. I’m still a black woman in an industry that is still largely white male. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. That though means the scale has been tipped in many ways to disproportionately impact the careers and the rise in a negative way of women of color. 62-year history of The Today Show, I was the first black woman to host The Today Show. In this daytime talk space, while the greatest to ever do it, Oprah Winfrey, is a black woman, currently there are only two daytime shows, I believe, that have a single host who are black females and that would be myself and Wendy Williams who created, executive produce, and host the show. The two of us. The rest are ensemble shows on network television. Those are all things that I have to keep front-of-mind when I am negotiating, when I am looking at what I feel I am owed as a hardworking, high-achieving individual in this business.”
As I wrapped up my conversation with Hall, she let me know that her “TamFam” talk show viewers should tune in this holiday season to the Tamron Hall Show for great giveaways coming up, but jokes that they should not expect car giveaways quite yet in memorable Oprah fashion, playfully reminding us all that her show is only in its third season. Making my way to my last question, I asked Hall what advice she would give today to her former self, the Tamron Hall studying Broadcast Journalism at Temple University, unknowing at the time of her hard-fought career achievements ahead of her. Without hesitation, Hall responded with, “Don’t proceed with caution. Go right in. As long as the house is not on fire, you’ll be okay.”
