FILE - This Nov. 16, 2016 file photo shows NBC "Today" host Tamron Hall at the 2016 L'Oreal Women of Worth Awards in New York. Hall is leaving the network after finding out that the team on the 9 a.m.... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This Nov. 16, 2016 file photo shows NBC "Today" host Tamron Hall at the 2016 L'Oreal Women of Worth Awards in New York. Hall is leaving the network after finding out that the team on the 9 a.m. hour of the morning show was being replaced by Megyn Kelly. NBC said her last appearance on NBC and... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — NBC said Wednesday that news anchor Tamron Hall is leaving the network, the first casualty of its decision to sign Megyn Kelly away from Fox News Channel. 
 
 Hall co-hosted the third of NBC's four-hour "Today" show, airing at 9 a.m. ET, with Al Roker. Last week they were told that their hour was giving way to Kelly, who was promised a slot in NBC's daytime lineup. 
 
 NBC said Hall, who also hosted an hour of news programming each morning on MSNBC, had her last day at the network on Tuesday. The network said it tried to convince Hall to stay beyond the end of her contract this month, but she declined. 
 
 Hall, 46, was not immediately available for comment, a spokeswoman said. Through an NBC statement, she said: "The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I'm grateful. 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." 
 
 She joined MSNBC in 2007 after working for a decade in local news in Chicago. She was active in efforts to fight domestic violence after telling about the murder of her older sister in Houston in 2004. 
 
 NBC is weighing two options for Kelly: hosting the 9 a.m. hour, after Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie do the first two. Or, Kelly will host at 10 a.m. and that hour's current duo, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, will move up an hour to 9. Kelly is expected to start her new show in the fall, NBC said. 
 
 NBC has failed to establish much of an identity for the 9 a.m. hour. Last fall they brought on Billy Bush, but he lost his job after an old tape surfaced of him involved in sexually offensive banter with Donald Trump. 
 
 Hall also hosted the 11 a.m. hour on MSNBC. ||||| Tamron Hall Exits NBC and MSNBC 
 
 The 'Today' anchor most recently co-hosted the 9 a.m. hour with Al Roker. 
 
 Tamron Hall is leaving NBC and MSNBC, the network's news division announced Wednesday. 
 
 "Tamron is an exceptional journalist, we valued and enjoyed her work at Today and MSNBC and hoped that she would decide to stay," NBC News said in a statement. "We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best." 
 
 Her last day on both networks was Tuesday. Her contract with NBC News expires this month. 
 
 "The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I’m grateful," Hall 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.” 
 
 The news is no surprise given that Today, where Hall served as a co-anchor of the 9 a.m. hour with Al Roker, is about to undergo a major upheaval to make room for Megyn Kelly. Kelly departed her longtime home of Fox News last month for a lucrative deal at NBC News that includes her own daytime show as well as a Sunday night news magazine. 
 
 Last week, news broke that Kelly would likely take over one hour of Today's four-hour programming block, either moving current hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb up an hour to 9 a.m., or taking the spot most recently occupied by Hall and Roker. 
 
 NBC News confirmed the upcoming changes in its statement about Hall's departure, saying that Roker will continue to co-host the 9 a.m. hour until a new morning lineup begins in the fall. 
 
 Hall's departure from Today's weekday lineup follows the 2016 exits of Natalie Morales, Willie Geist and most recently Billy Bush. Morales exited her day-to-day role on Today to serve as co-host of Access Hollywood. (She continues to appear on Today as the program's West Coast anchor.) Geist, who also co-hosted the 9 a.m. hour, left to focus on Today's revamped Sunday edition, which he now anchors. Ex-Access Hollywood co-host Bush was brought in as Geist's replacement beginning with the morning show's Summer Olympics coverage. Bush exited NBC News altogether in the fall after the Washington Post leaked a video in which he engaged in a lewd conversation with now-President Donald Trump back in 2005. Bush was suspended by Today after the video surfaced and exited altogether weeks later. 
 
 Hall's departure comes after a decade at NBC and MSNBC. On the latter network, she co-hosted The Big Picture before going on to host two of her own shows, NewsNation With Tamron Hall and Deadline Crime With Tamron Hall. She joined Today in 2014. During her tenure, Hall won an Edward R. Murrow Award and an Emmy in 2010 as part of NBC News' inauguration coverage. Before joining NBC and MSNBC, she worked for Chicago's Fox affiliate.
– Today anchor Tamron Hall is quitting NBC and MSNBC amid the upheaval caused by the hiring of Megyn Kelly. Hall co-hosted Today's 9am hour with Al Roker, a slot that's now expected to be given to the former Fox News star. "Tamron is an exceptional journalist, we valued and enjoyed her work at Today and MSNBC and hoped that she would decide to stay," NBC News said in a statement, per the Hollywood Reporter. Hall, who joined MSNBC in 2007 and still hosted an hour of news programming there each morning, had her last day at both networks on Tuesday. "The last 10 years have been beyond anything I could have imagined, and I'm grateful," Hall said in a statement. "I’m also very excited about the next chapter." According to the AP, NBC is considering either giving Today's 9am hour to Kelly or shifting Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb to 9am and giving Kelly their 10am slot. The Reporter notes that Hall's Today exit follows those of Natalie Morales, Willie Geist, and Billy Bush, who was fired in October after tape of a lewd conversation with Donald Trump in 2005 surfaced. (Fox has revealed Kelly's replacement.)