Only time will tell! Hoda Kotb opened up about Tamron Hall‘s NBC exit, saying she doesn’t know what her former colleague’s next step is, but she’s sure it’ll be fun to watch.
“I don’t know what she’s gonna do next, but I think she’s gonna surprise all of us,” Kotb, 52, told Us Weekly at the Woman’s Day 14th Annual Red Dress Awards in NYC on Tuesday, February 7. “I mean, look, she’s so talented. It’s just a matter of where, not when. So where will she wind up? She’s got it together — she’s smart, she’s sharp, she’s fun, she’s funny. I mean, I’m bummed because she’s not with us, but I can’t wait to see where she winds up.”
What will she miss most about Hall? Her outfits! “I go, ‘Did you rob a bank? Like, what is all of that?’ Whenever she walks out you always go, ‘OK, what’s happening?’ When I walk out they’re like, ‘Didn’t you wear that on Wednesday?'” she joked. “But just her sense of style, which was so unique and often not seen in our business … She stands out that way.”
As previously reported, Hall, 46, announced her decision to leave NBC and MSNBC after she found out that Megyn Kelly would be taking over an hour of the Today show. In early January, Kelly, 46, announced that she was ending her 10-year run at Fox for the new gig.
Hall was told only “minutes before going on air Friday that she and Al [Roker] were being taken off the show for Megyn Kelly,” an insider told Us Weekly after her departure on Tuesday, January 31. “She was a wreck in commercial breaks and couldn’t believe the company would tell her just before going live on MSNBC. It was especially surprising after receiving an email of praise from the coexecutive producer just days before about how they were No. 1 in the ratings for seven weeks in a row.”
NBC released a statement about the matter on Wednesday, February 1. “[January 31] was her last day as an anchor on both networks,” NBC told Us in a statement. “Tamron is an exceptional journalist, we valued and enjoyed her work at Today and MSNBC and hoped that she would decide to stay. We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best.”
Hall broke her silence the same day. “The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I’m grateful,” she said in a statement. “I’m also very excited about the next chapter. To all my great colleagues, I will miss you and I will be rooting for you.”
Despite the TV shake-up, Kotb is ready to welcome Kelly with open arms. She teased, however, that a bit of hazing might go down. “That’s how we do it when a newbie shows up,” she joked. “The hazing, it includes bringing them on the 10 o’clock show and serving them, if you know what I mean. Then we’re gonna see how she is after a few glasses [of wine]. I wanna see how she holds it — it’s very important.”
