Former ‘Today’ co-host Tamron Hall signs with Disney/ABC for a new talk show

Former “Today” co-host Tamron Hall has signed a deal to develop and host a new daytime talk show for Disney/ABC, the company announced Wednesday.

The program is to be syndicated on TV stations starting in fall 2019.

Hall had been a popular fixture for years at NBC News, where she anchored a daily program on cable network MSNBC from 2007 to 2017. She was also a co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of its morning franchise “Today” from 2014 to 2017. The role made her the first African American woman to serve as a host of “Today” in the program’s more than six-decade history.

Hall left NBC News after management decided to scrap the third hour of “Today” and give the time to Megyn Kelly, who joined the network from Fox News. Ratings for the hour have faltered since it became “Megyn Kelly Today” in September.

Since she left NBC, Hall’s TV appearances have been limited to “Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall,” her series for ID Discovery.

Hall had signed a deal to develop a talk show with the Weinstein Co. before sexual misconduct scandals brought down the company’s co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. The deal expired shortly after the scandal broke, freeing Hall to align with another production company.

Hall will enter a challenging landscape when she launches the new show. Daytime audiences for syndicated talk shows have been declining, as more viewers are choosing to stream shows or play back series on their DVRs instead of watching live TV during the day.

No syndicated talk show with a solo host has succeeded since “The Steve Harvey Show” was launched in 2013. Disney/ABC has not entered the syndication market with the format since Katie Couric’s program, which had a two-year run in daytime that ended in 2014.

Hall does enter the field with a track record with the daytime audience. The third hour of “Today” typically drew 3 million viewers while she was co-host.

[email protected]

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio