TV BUZZ: ‘Tamron Hall’ heads to Oprah Winfrey Network + exclusive with Andrew Gillum
Article By Rebecca Johnson // EEW Magazine Online // TV BUZZ
Tamron Hall, the popular daytime talker where feel-good stories and motivational news perfectly flow into hard-hitting reporting, is heading into its second season with a bang.
According to an exclusive Deadline report, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has licensed the syndicated daytime talk show Tamron Hall from Disney Media Networks, giving one of our favorite women of faith and influence a broader platform.
We love to see it.
The second run of Tamron Hall on OWN begins Monday, September 14 –the exact day that Season Two of the talker premieres nationally in first-run syndication.
How’s that for expansion?
OWN will air new episodes of Tamron Hall two days after airing in syndication Monday-Friday at 8am and 1pm. In addition, Season One episodes will air Monday-Friday at 9am and 2pm.
To kick off Season Two, Tamron Hall is all set to air a gripping sit-down interview with disgraced former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and his wife R. Jai Gillum.
49-year-old Hall calls it "one of the most difficult" in her 27-year career as a journalist, according to PEOPLE.
In March 2020, Gillum, once a rising star in the Democratic Party, shocked Americans when he was named in a South Florida police report that said he was “inebriated” and initially unresponsive in a hotel room along with two other men where authorities found baggies of suspected crystal methamphetamine.
The former Tallahassee mayor who nearly won his bid for governor in 2018 was not charged with any crime and was allowed to leave the hotel for home after he was checked out medically. Despite escaping any legal ramifications, his personal life and public persona suffered a great deal.
In his chat with Hall, Gillum opens up about what happened and where he is now since entering rehab and therapy and retreating from public office.
"It was intense, and at moments it was heartbreaking, upsetting, and it was disorienting," Hall told PEOPLE. "I’m only there because they’ve agreed, but I still felt like I was prying. They agreed to talk with me, but as a journalist there’s moments where you wonder: How far are we really supposed to go?"
At the time when Gillum, 41, was found in the hotel room, he said he’d "had too much to drink" but had not taken meth. Photos released by Miami Beach police show what the luxury hotel room looked like when officers found him. The images reveal vomit-stained and rumpled bed sheets, a box for a party light disco ball, spilled white pills on the carpet and a vial of a drugs often used for erectile dysfunction.
One man identified himself as an escort through the website Rent Men who told the Miami New Times that he and Gillum had been “friends for a while.” Yet, questions and speculations still swirl around Gillum’s sexuality and exactly what he was doing that day.
Now, for the first time ever, Gillum and his spouse are talking candidly about everything.
“It’s one of the most difficult interviews I’ve ever conducted because you have someone who — the level of shame that he is feeling, the level of heartbreak and humiliation that his wife has been exposed to, reaches a depth of pain that I cannot imagine," Hall said.
Hall, who co-hosted the Today show for three years before leaving NBC in 2017, reached out to Gillum after learning about the scandal online.
"He and his wife had refused many, many requests from so many shows — both news and entertainment," Hall said. "I think what the breakthrough was, at least what they told me, was that I wanted her to be a major part of the story, not just the spouse on the side meant to prop you up or meant to shield you from the incoming criticism, but what’s your story as well?"
Hall said of the woman standing by the politician’s side, "She’s incredibly protective of their three children, as you can imagine, but she’s also very protective of Andrew. She’s very forthcoming about their relationship, about decisions they made within their relationship that she never expected to be discussing publicly — nor did she want to and now she is.”
For the full interview, tune into the season premiere of Tamron Hall Monday, September 14th. Check your local listings for official air times.