Tamron Hall launched her eponymous talk show to be an authentic space that fostered very real conversations between the veteran journalist, her guests and the audience dubbed the ‘Tam Fam.’ She’s earned praise for her candor and an Emmy for “Informative Talk Show Host” in 2020 which has enjoyed a 17% increase in ratings.

Hall and her show have also been at the center of controversy. Recently, Candi Carter left her post as executive producer of The Tamron Hall Show now in its third season amid allegations of a toxic work environment. Good Morning America weekend executive producer Quiana Burns is being tapped as the interim EP of the syndicated daytime talk show.

(Credit: Tamron Hall)

The upheaval is taking place as Hall is on the promotional trail for her thriller, “As The Wicked Watch: The First Jordan Manning Novel.” It’s a book ripped from the headlines as the plight of missing Black women and girls doesn’t command the same frenzied coverage as their white counterparts. Jordan Manning is a vibrant and quick-witted broadcast journalist — a blend of Nancy Drew and Angela Bassett — looking to balance the scales; seeking out a serial killer responsible for the murder of 15-year-old Masey James and another Black girl.

As the Wicked Watch places a critical eye on the media — criticism that Hall is familiar with. In an exclusive interview with TheGrio, the award-winning journalist addresses her talk show and her new must-read.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity

TheGrio: What would you have to say to all these allegations?

Tamron Hall: A lot of what I feel honestly and what I see extends the 30 years plus that I’ve been doing this.

As a journalist, as a woman, as a Black woman, none of the things that you’ve asked me about, surprise me at all. Because from local news to the network level, I have seen Black women assigned titles and names and allegations that you just don’t see. I’ll date back to when I was in local news, Stephanie. Black women would disappear from the anchor chair. Older white men were left to stay there in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. An expiration date was already assigned when many of the people I looked up to walked into the room. Now I’m at a national level.

I was not surprised at all by a single article, without a source, without attribution. You respectfully just quoted three articles. Did you call any of those individuals? So journalists to a journalist, every question I ask, I have made a call on — I have looked into. So for me, it is exactly what my book is about my book, As The Wicked Watch is about how Black women are seen and how our stories are told. Jordan Manning follows a young Black girl who disappears.

And just like we’re talking about now, my great friend Joy-Ann Reid highlighted Black and missing girls because no one else does. Because who gets to be the headline, and what do we get to be the headline about?

Respectfully, you didn’t ask me about my ratings being up 17 percent. You didn’t ask me how possibly I’m the first Black woman to have a show. Get to the third season with probably the lowest budget because the narrative behind us, whether it’s the case that I cover in my book or sometimes in real life, makes us one-dimensional.

Then when we ask collectively, how is it that Black children aren’t the lead story on the national news? Well, what are we asking about Black children? How is it that our shows can’t stay on longer than a season or two? Or perhaps what are we asking about those shows? Now, let me be clear, I believe you should ask and speak truth to power because I’ve worked in all kinds of work environments, but I never imagined that from the bottom of my heart that I would be writing this book that collides so seamlessly into some of the questions that are often asked of Black women that are not asked of anyone else and questions that are asked on tabloids and rumors.

I’m a journalist. I know questions I would ask and that I wouldn’t, and I know provocative questions that I know questions are seeking the truth. But I’ve also been doing this long enough to know questions that seek clicks. I don’t respond Stephanie to a million things because I believe at this level, if I keep swatting at flies, my arms get tired.

(Credit: Tamron Hall)

(TheGrio did attempt to previously contact representatives of The Tamron Hall Show for comment about accusations)

TG: Let’s get into the book. One of the things I love so much about Jordan’s character is like she jumps off the page right away. She wants people to know Masey was a real person. Do you feel, in your opinion, is that one of the reasons a lot of missing Black women and girls are not given the attention because they’re just simply written off? They’re not humanized.

Hall: We’re not humanized on many levels. The book talks about how a victim may be seen in the wrong hands; with the wrong reporter, it’s another Black girl that’s vanished. That’s exactly why I’m not shrugging away from the conversation about negative headlines about me. We’re not humanized. We’re not human.

I’m told I’m angry. Masey’s mom is told she doesn’t matter. We don’t need to look for her. And the fact that I go through this in my life and that, unbeknownst to me, a year and a half ago, I wrote this — to me is an opportunity. I am compelled now I am inspired more than ever before that this book was right. It was actually inspired by two cases that I covered.

TG: Do you think things will get better? Because what I’ve noticed in the media, the fact when something like a George Floyd incident happens, people feel compelled to do this. Performative acts with Gabby Petito and her missing and then turning up dead. [Outlets say] well, let me do a story about a Black woman and they’ll shut up.

How do we get these movements to last beyond just a performative gesture?

Hall: With people like TheGrio doing more, dedicate an entire section to missing Black and brown and wonderful reporters like yourself — me doing more with the platform that I have. You know, I had a crime show.

Second season, we went to the producer and I said, we’ve got to do more in the space of missing Black and brown crime affects us. We are characterized as the villains when it comes to crime. But we are the victims of crime. Our girls go missing. Our boys get killed on the street.

TG: You’ve written this book. You’re also a mom. You’re married. You’re a talk show host. Where do you find the time for all of this?

Hall: Listen, I wish I had an answer for that. I’m a Virgo.

TG: Yes, that Virgo Energy.

Hall: Virgo Energy Sun, all Virgos got, that’s what it is. You know what, I try to write everything down. I’ve just had the same best friend since I was four years old. We talk when I’m driving in, I manage my whole day, and then I really give myself time to cry, to heal, to be human.

Jemele Hill said to me very early on when I was still building this show. And I was like, ‘You know, I got this know I’m OK, I’m OK’ and she said, ‘Listen, that’s another burden of Black women. We always have to pretend we have it together.’ We always have to be strong. We can’t be weak.

And then when we’re weak, we’re, you know, criticizing when you’re strong, you’re too strong and all of these things, she said, ‘Just be sistah. Just be.’ And sometimes I go home and I’m just, I don’t care. I listen. My gray hair will show. I’m sitting there with my ice cream, binge-watching whatever it is I want to watch. And I just let myself be. But I don’t have it all together and it’s not balanced. Some days I go, Whoa, girl, you did that. You got all that done in one day and then there are days I’m like, ‘I can’t look at this phone I didn’t get anything done.’

It’s surreal to be 51. It’s surreal to be seen as a role model because I came home from the hospital with a 19-year-old mom who nobody bet on, and no one certainly was going to bet on the child she brought home. And I am just blessed and grateful that every day of my life, she told me, Don’t apologize for who you are. Treat people with love and respect. And if you root for them, they will root for you. And every day, I feel that. 

And sometimes I go home and I’m just, I don’t care. Listen — My gray hair is there. I was sitting there with my ice cream, binge-watching whatever it is I want to watch. And I just let myself be.

As the Wicked Watch: The First Jordan Manning Novel will be available for purchase on Oct. 26.

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