Former Today Show co-anchor Tamron Hall is excited about her new daytime show, but there was one thing she absolutely demanded: more women in the room.
“When I came to [an early] meeting to discuss my new show…there were only men in the room,” Hall said at Rolling Stone’s recent Women Shaping the Future brunch. “And I had to say, ‘Sorry to tell you, but we are going to have a lot of women on staff. Sorry, but I don’t want to just talk to you men all day. We need some women in here.’”
This isn’t the first time Hall bossed up. When the 9 a.m. Today slot she co-hosted with Al Roker was shelved to make room for former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly’s now-defunct show, Hall decided to walk away from the news organization altogether.
“I knew I had worked hard. I would do the Today Show for three hours, 45 minutes in between, go to MSNBC, and every weekend I’d tape Deadline Crime,” Hall said last year. “I don’t begrudge anyone for taking a job offered to them. That’s not my journey. For me, [it’s] a universal feeling: We all want to feel appreciated—at work, in our lives, in relationships—and so that’s just what I felt. I didn’t have a chip on my shoulder. There were reports that I abruptly left and that’s a lie.”
It seems like Hall’s decision to assert her worth paid off. In addition to her new syndicated show, the 48-year-old journalist recently announced she’s pregnant with her first child.
“It’s clear a daytime talk show isn’t the only thing I’ve been trying to produce,” Hall wrote on Instagram earlier this month. “ My husband Steven and I are beyond excited!”
Tamron Hall will hit TV screens on September 19.
