Background and career
Tamron Hall (born September 16, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist, television talk show host and author. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which has earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards. Hall was formerly a national news correspondent for NBC News, daytime anchor for MSNBC, host of the program MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall, and a co-host of Today's Take, the third hour of Today. She hosts Deadline: Crime on Investigation Discovery channel. In summer 2016, Investigation Discovery premiered the TV special Guns on Campus: Tamron Hall Investigates, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the tower shooting at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hall was raised in Luling, Texas. Her mother was an educator and her father had a military career, serving in the US Army for three decades. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Temple University in 1992, after which she moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to begin her broadcasting career.
Hall first worked at KBTX-TV in Bryan, Texas, as a general assignment reporter, then moved to KTVT in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1994, where she spent four more years as a general assignment reporter. From 1997 to 2007, she worked for WFLD in Chicago, Illinois. She held several positions, including general assignment reporter, consumer reporter, and host of a three-hour program, Fox News in the Morning. Hall frequently reported on issues related to Chicago politics, and she covered many "breaking news" stories, including one of the most devastating Amtrak accidents in Illinois. In July 2007, Hall joined the national news network MSNBC and NBC News. She also landed a one-on-one interview with Barack Obama before he announced his run for US President in 2008. At MSNBC, Hall served as a general reporter and fill-in anchor, first achieving prominence as a substitute anchor for Keith Olbermann on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Hall then joined David Shuster as co-host of a two-hour program, The Big Picture, which premiered June 1, 2009, and concluded January 29, 2010. Hall anchored as a substitute for Natalie Morales, and also anchored on the weekends.
In 2010, hosted NewsNation with Tamron Hall, which included high-profile interviews and coverage of US, global and entertainment news. Airing weekday afternoons, the show covered important American events, including a live television broadcast from Ground Zero in New York City after the death of Osama Bin Laden, the final space shuttle launch in 2011, and Hurricane Isaac in 2012. Hall also encouraged viewers to express their opinions via social media on prominent, controversial news stories.
In July 2013, it was announced that Hall would host Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall on Investigation Discovery. The weekly newsmagazine series features two crime occurrences per one-hour episode, and debuted on September 1, 2013. In each episode, Hall and her investigative team uncover details on why and how things happened within each case, obtaining information from as many reputable sources as possible. The series ran for six seasons, 2013 to 2019. Hall dedicates the series to her older sister, whose death was ruled a homicide in 2004 and remains unsolved.
On February 24, 2014, Hall premiered as co-anchor of Today's Take (The Today Show's third hour with Natalie Morales, Al Roker and Willie Geist), becoming the first African American woman to co-anchor Today. On the day she signed the deal, she wore the jacket of American singer and civil rights activist Lena Horne, which she bought from Horne's estate sale. Horne remains a primary inspiration to Hall. In February 2017, after the network gave her Today co-hosting slot to Megyn Kelly, Hall opted out of her contract and decided to leave NBC rather than take a lesser role. On February 1, 2017, with Hall's contract expiring within the month, NBC News and Hall released a joint statement confirming Hall's decision to depart from both NBC and MSNBC.
