On the Wednesday, November 10 edition of “Tamron Hall,” Nischelle Turner, the first Black woman to co-host “Entertainment Tonight,” was given the surprise of a lifetime when April Eaton, the woman who first inspired Turner to become a television host, joined the broadcast to meet Turner for the first time. During the emotional interview, Turner opened up about how Eaton sparked her journey to hosting and what it means to be chosen for Ebony’s esteemed Power 100 List. See the video clip inside…
Turner on the season four and five renewals of “Tamron Hall”:
“I know we’re here for me to be a guest on the show but when I saw the news that you got seasons four and five, I started cheering and screaming like it was me. I’m so proud of you and so happy for you. I’ve been a fan of yours, I’m from the Midwest, I’ve been a fan of yours since you were in Chicago. I’ve been watching you, emulating you, adoring you, just thinking you were everything. So it’s kind of a full circle moment for me to be here today.”
Turner on what it means to her to be selected for the Ebony Power 100 List:
“Well, I mean like you know, Tamron, growing up for so many of us, especially young girls of color, that was how we saw ourselves. That was really the only place we were reflected in print. So to be honored under the umbrella of a brand that’s so iconic to you, it just means the world. Because for so long they’ve been saying to us as folks of color, ‘We see you.’ So to have this career and for them to say ‘We see you sis, well done,’ I mean it just meant everything. It really did.”
Turner on April Eaton’s invaluable impact on her career:
“I remember it to this day. Her name was April Eaton, and I was, like you said, 12, 13 years old and I always kind of knew…there were kind of two things I always thought about that I wanted to do because I talked all the time. I used to get in trouble for it, now, there you go, it serves me. But I either wanted to be an attorney or I wanted to be a journalist. But I thought I wanted to be a writer. And I saw this woman, April Eaton on television in Columbia, Missouri, where I’m from. And I looked, and I said, ‘What? Hold on.’ I’d never seen a Black woman on television like that. That was, you know, right before Oprah really debuted, I hadn’t really seen it. And I said, ‘That woman looks like me. What is she doing?’ And it just sparked something in me to say, ‘Can I do what she’s doing?’ And it just really sent me on a journey. I just got to reconnect with her as well. This is gonna make me cry. Because I talked about her in a Vogue magazine interview that they did with me about becoming the first Black woman to co-host ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and I said her name and so she reached out and just said what that moment meant to her.”
Eaton on serving as an inspiration for young Black girls such as Turner to follow their dreams:
“When I was in Missouri in the late ‘80s, I was there as a student pursuing my graduate degree in journalism. I did my undergraduate degree at Hampton [University], University of Missouri was my graduate degree. I was there learning the craft, learning the trade, reporting and writing and, in my case, anchoring because the news directors there, who were also my professors in the classroom, saw something in me. But even more amazing than all of that is the fact that as a little girl Nischelle saw her face in my Brown face. And she thought, ‘I can do this too.’” She continued, “You just never know who’s watching. And the power of what you can do mentoring and making a difference in a community, in this case, without even knowing. I didn’t know until just a few months ago that I made that impact on her.”
