Tamron Hall Says Being a TV Junkie Prepared Her to Be a Talk Show Host

"I don't care if you are famous. I don't care if you're a writer. I don't care what it is. I just need you to come to talk."

The pool of people who can call themselves talk show hosts is very, very small, and Tamron Hall is keenly aware of that. "For me, it's not about being highbrow or low," Hall says about the Tamron Hall Show. "We are a celebrity daytime talk show, of course, but we have real people layered in." And that's part of the reason why Hall's four-time Emmy winning show has been a success. "I don't care if you are famous. I don't care if you're a writer. I don't care what it is. I just need you to come to talk." But the success of the show wasn't guaranteed. "On paper people were like, 'Oh, the lady that got fired,'" Hall said, referring to her departure from NBC's Today show in 2017. But Hall's transition from journalist to talk show host was seamless, finding the balance between reporting and the emotion in a guest's story. "My role as a journalist is to walk into the room and not judge." And when someone comes "to play," that's when "it's such an exhilarating [job], it's so fun."

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Do you see how, as a talk show host, you're in a very small group of people?

Honestly, I do, because I'm a TV junkie. I could probably tell you my [TV] lineup from age seven when I was a latchkey kid in the 70s until now. But it struck me recently when we did a piece where the writer was reflecting on the legacy of Barbara Walters, and in the article it said that I am the only journalist outside of Barbara and Oprah to have successful seasons of a daytime talk show. And I'm like, wait a minute. So you're in this weird, rarefied air and then it gets a little more strange being a journalist. I grew up on Dinah Shore, Merv Griffin, Oprah to Geraldo [Rivera], Rosie O'Donnell, Bonnie Hunt...

Bonnie Hunt's show was so good!

I think we were probably all kids who talked in the mirror to ourselves. You have to be personable. You have to be able to keep a conversation going. Understanding that sensation of dialogue with multiple people.

Exactly. I always told myself I just wanted a job where I could talk and be myself. It's worked out so far.

And certainly it started early.

Oh, I skipped the last day of school just to see the premiere of The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

My first talk show that I ever saw in person, it was college, and we came to see Geraldo. That's when they were throwing chairs. That was a crazy wild time. And we didn't come for his show, but we scored tickets.

How hard is it to do a talk show?

The hardest job of my life other than when I was a waitress for 14 days. That said, it's so rewarding. And I know that sounds cliché. It's a kick-a** job. I mean, that's what my 7-year-old who would curse in secret without my parents around [would say], but it is because every day, much like news, it's a different day because we're live three days out of the five. The guests come in sometimes at the last minute, big guests call, and they say I'm ready to talk. Case in point, I am waiting for Blac Chyna to arrive. I will be her very first interview on camera on TV. And we got a call, she wants to do the interview. So that switched my whole week and my whole mindset to focus in on who she is as a person and the story. That's what I do love about our show. We are a celebrity daytime talk show, of course, but we have real people layered in and we really have this expectation. And the audience honestly has the expectation that the celebrity, if you will, shows up as their authentic self. Now, that doesn't mean without hair and makeup because I don't show up without hair or makeup. But it means you've got to come to talk, you've got to come to play and we want to know the journey. That's why it's such an exhilarating [job], it's so fun. I'm a people person. I love people. If you ask me what my dream day is, it's leaving here. I cook dinner, my friends show up, my husband is there, my kids. So it extends to my personal life as well.

How do you balance being a journalist while also being almost an empath, connecting with people emotionally?

This conversation is going to take a dark turn, but here we go. For six seasons, I hosted a show called Deadline Crime. I was approached by David Zaslav to come up with an idea for shows. And he asked me, what's your story? And I don't know how it came up, to be honest with you, but I talked about my sister having an unsolved murder. And we've talked about this show and created this show Deadline Crime where originally it was five or six correspondents, and I was going to talk to them like 60 Minutes. But I said, I don't feel attached to the show, I'd like to go out and take the stories myself. I'd like to go and travel on the weekend. So I would leave the Today Show/MSNBC gig and then Saturday, Sunday, prior to having my son, I would travel and go to these places. And people would read about my sister's death or they were told by my producers that she's got a familiar background to this, and they would come in and I would see a look of, "She's family." We're part of the club that you can't imagine. And I allow myself to release this notion of what a journalist is or isn't. I'm a human, and I am sitting in front of a dad who loved his daughter. And he was describing her smile in such a beautiful way, I could close my eyes and see it as he was explaining, and we both burst into tears. And so over the last, I don't know how many years, I've allowed myself to understand that I can be a journalist, but to your point, I guess I'm an empath. I'm somebody that you can speak to that's safe. When you're ready to tell your story, whatever it is, I want it to feel safe to laugh. I have a cackle of a laugh, which I've now embraced. And I'm allowed to cry. And that gives our show a different feel. We found a lane. I think if I tried to do what Bonnie did, obviously, I'm not as funny as Bonnie, but I'd be somewhere doing something else. But I leaned in on the journalism while also accepting the evolution of who I am now, which is to recognize that I have a right to show my heart. And that's the conversation. Because if you sit at lunch with a friend, and you're crying, and you don't see a tear from that friend, get up and find some new friends. And I want my friends laughing. That's the part of the vibe.

What have you learned over the years doing the show?

I tell people to show is brunch with your true crew, your tribe, your friends, and you're able to talk, and I think the art of the show is to have that feeling, right? We may not be exactly the same exterior, we may not have the same journey, but how much fun is it when we just allow each other to take off the mask and live our lives together. And so for ourselves, on paper people were like, "Oh, the lady that got fired." And by the way, I'm like the D-list on the Today show. I came in and I think, much like how Rosie O'Donnell, she loved Broadway, she poured that love into the [show], and I tried to pour that into what this show would be. And we're fortunate, four seasons later that people get it. But, of course, I had many people say, well, what's the show? I said, it's a talk show. But what's the show? Like, you've never seen a talk show before? You're gonna play games? I don't like games. But watch the show. And I kept answering it that way. And so I came up with the moniker "Let's talk about it." The team is great. We're fortunate, we're the only daytime show where Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama have made appearances this season. It's just phenomenal. When you tell a story, you can make anybody into a rock star, and you don't have to embellish. You have to just tell their story. I really believe that we all have a story. Let's talk about it. And I just happen to be the person facilitating the brunch. We're friends.

I recently interviewed Paris Hilton, who certainly has a reputation many judge. How do you find something deeper in someone who many judge one way?

That's your role as a journalist, my role as a journalist, our role as communicators, is to walk into the room and not judge. And you get to the magic of daytime. It's someone that lives in an entertainment world, we pull back the layers. Everyone's layered. I think that's why we both love daytime. I think probably if we look at our backgrounds and our journeys, someone's judged us from our exterior, someone's judged us from, where we're from, or where we were born. And then you start to peel back these layers. I mean, you see who we are. And the gift of that allows us to give that gift to other people, which is why I'm going to pull back your layers, my producers say no, and the directors, everybody's like, why is this person on your show? Yeah, I'm gonna pull back the layers, and I'm going to talk about it. And that's what we do.

Who is the dream guest you're dying to have?

So, I had Eddie Murphy on Zoom, which, at the time, I was so proud to bring up that I was a fan of his music and I said, "Don't you want to come back, maybe perform with Megan Thee Stallion," and you have to pull up his reaction. I was so honored that he accepted the invitation via Zoom because this is when we were in lockdown. I want to go on the road with Eddie Murphy, and I want to do a Starbucks run. Because every time I see him in the tabloids, he has a Starbucks cup. And he's walking in, like seven times a day. What is his order? I want to go. I want to know what he tips. I want to know the name he gives on the cup. But most important, I do think that he is one of the greatest comedians ever. So I deeply love Eddie Murphy. There's just so many things that I would love to explore. I could give you a list of people. But it's also a feeling, right? This feeling when people come to play, as we call it. I've had very favorite people that I won't name that I thought this is gonna be a phenomenal interview, I'm gonna sit down and I know everything I've read, and they are flat as a book. I have been there. Your heart, your mouth goes dry, your heart's pounding, your pits are sweating and you're going, "What just happened here?" That's a terrible feeling. I've had it a couple of times that I will write about one day. I had the feeling of when people come to play. For me, it's a feeling. I don't care if you are famous. I don't care if you're a writer. I don't care what it is. I just need you to come to talk. Because I can tell when people give me the company line. Oh, can't stand it. I've long given up on this idea of okay, my guest list of people I want to talk to. It's a feeling, and that's what I love.

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