Tamron Hall is not ready to gloat about Megyn Kelly’s short-lived NBC News tenure, which resulted in Hall’s eventual departure from the network in 2017.
While promoting her upcoming daytime talk show Monday, “Tamron Hall,” she said that even if Kelly had been successful, NBC News still made the wrong choice in bumping Hall off the “Today” show — she co-hosted the 9 a.m. hour with Al Roker — to make room for Kelly.
“Megyn’s success or not, I already knew they made the wrong choice when I left the door. So I would never measure by her success or perceived lack thereof. I knew the day I left that it was the wrong decision, that’s why I left,” Hall said during the Television Critics Association press tour. “For me, I didn’t know what would come after leaving that situation. I’m blessed and fortunate that this is the end result. But whether that show made it or not, I knew I was making the right decision for me.”
Hall left NBC in early 2017, after losing her “Today” 9 a.m. hour to make room for Megyn Kelly’s new morning program.
But Kelly had a rocky tenure with NBC News, first with a failed primetime news magazine show, and second with her daytime show, “Megyn Kelly Today.” Throughout Kelly’s tenure, she was unable to fully separate herself from the inflammatory style that made her standout on Fox News. On-air flubs included a defense of fat shaming and asking Jane Fonda about her plastic surgery during a live interview.
“Megyn Kelly Today” was canceled on Oct. 26, days after she suggested on air that wearing blackface might not be racist in certain instances, like on Halloween. “What is racist?” she asked. “You get in trouble if you’re a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. When I was a kid that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character.”
Hall’s upcoming syndicated daytime talk show, “Tamron Hall,” debuts Sept. 9. It will be executive produced by “The View” co-created Bill Geddie, with Talia Parkinson-Jones as co-executive producer.