Tamron Hall Leaves NBC and Sparks National Controversy
By Shaynah Ferreira
NBC has confirmed TODAY co-host, Tamron Hall will be leaving NBC.
Hall joined the network in 2007 and became part of the TODAY show team in 2014 as a co-anchor of TODAY’s Take, the popular morning show’s third hour. Hall also anchored for MSNBC Live, a daily news program that aired on MSNBC.
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The network announced in a statement Hall would be leaving when her contract expires at the end of February. The news comes just a few days after sources at NBC confirmed that Megyn Kelly’s new daytime show would take over TODAY’s 9 or 10 am hour, where Hall anchored with Al Roker.
Al Roker addressed Hall’s departure on TODAY saying, “As some of you may have heard by now, our good friend Tamron Hall has decided to leave NBC News. Personally, Tamron has been not just a co-host here on ‘Today’s Take’ for the past three years but a good friend — and not just to me, to all of us here,” he continued. “We want to wish her nothing but the best, much continued success and cannot wait to see what her next chapter is.”
Hall’s departure has caused controversy at the national level. The National Association of Black Journalists claiming NBC is “whitewashing” their network.
In a statement posted on NABJ’s website, “The National Association of Black Journalists is saddened by Tamron Hall’s departure from NBC. She broke ground as the first black female ‘Today Show’ co-host and was enjoying ratings success alongside Al Roker during the show’s third hour of programming. NBC has been a leader for diversity in broadcasting, but recent reports that Hall and Roker will be replaced by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly are being seen by industry professionals as whitewashing.”
An NBC spokesperson issued a response to the statement saying, “NBC News has a long and proven history as an industry leader in newsroom diversity,” the statement reads. “We will continue to engage in the running dialogue we’ve had for many years with the National Association of Black Journalists and other advocacy groups to advance those goals.”
NBC News confirms that Roker will continue to Host “Today’s Take” until a new morning segment begins in the fall of 2017.