Tamron Hall on Her Second Emmy Win and Advice for New Daytime Host Sherri Shepherd: ‘Know Your Intention’

The talk show host attended Essence Fest and opened up to PEOPLE about her award-winning show

It’s nice to win twice.

Tamron Hall is still pumped after taking home her second Daytime Emmy award for her eponymous talk show.

In New Orleans to celebrate Essence Fest for the first time since the pandemic, the star, 51, opened up to PEOPLE on Saturday about the difference a few years can make.

“Last time we were here was 2019, we’d just launched the show,” says Hall. “Now we’re back and I just won my second Emmy last week. We’re on a natural high and it’s great.”

For Hall, the moment she found out she won again was surreal. “I was sitting there in the audience, we were back in person. The first Emmy I won we were all at home and I learned on Zoom,” she said.

“But to be in the room with all my peers and my team and to receive that honor it was just… I still can’t believe it. I thought I heard my name and then I looked at my executive producer Quiana Burns and I said, ‘Oh they really said my name, oh my gosh!'”

Another highlight for Hall was getting to take the trophy home to her biggest little fan.

“The sweetest moment was when Moses was opening the box,” Hall says of her 3-year-old son, with husband Steve Greener. I caught a redeye and rushed back home that night and he opened the box. To see him touch the Emmy…I said ‘What’s that?’ And he said ‘Emmy’. It was very very special.”

Hall, who famously walked away from her role at the Today show in 2017, says the accolades are “a confirmation in ways that I’m only now processing.” She adds, “Now that the show is real I don’t think about people who said I couldn’t do it. I think about the people who told me how to do it, and how you do it is by talking to people.”

And, with Tamron heading into its fourth season and already renewed for another after that, Hall is happy to pass on some sage advice to others entering the daytime space. Asked what tips she’d offer Sherri Shepherd—also in town at Essence Fest to give away a brand new Ford vehicle and promote her new show debuting in the fall—Hall calls upon the words of TV royalty.

“My advice is what Oprah Winfrey gave me. Always know your intention. Why are you doing it? What is the reason for the story, the reason for the conversation” says Hall. “And that’s not just a guiding light in television. That’s a guiding light in life. What are your intentions? The greatest who ever did it gave that advice to me so I’ll pass it down.”