Tamron Hall Dresses as Dorothy from The Wiz in Halloween Episode Dedicated to Broadway Hit (Exclusive)

For Halloween this year, Tamron Hall channeled a character she has long admired and resonated with.

On Tuesday in the episode Tamron Hall the presenter transforms into Diana Ross’s version of Dorothy Wizard, exclusively discoverable by PEOPLE. It’s a decision Hall says “just feels so right.”

“I mentioned it many times in interviews Wizard of Oz because a lot of my life, I feel like, aligns with the character,” the television personality, 53, tells PEOPLE before taping the Halloween episode.

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Tamron Hall (left) and Diana Ross (right).

ABC/Jeff Neira

To portray Dorothy Diane Ross, Hall wore a light blue knee-length skirt, a long-sleeved baby pink blouse with frill detailing on the cuffs and collar, and a pair of sparkly silver heels. It’s “a really ’70s look,” notes her costume designer, Domino.

He said he based the look of the poster on the 1978 version Wizardstarring Ross, pulling the “color” and “vibrant” feel of the picture.

Ross, 79, was also the inspiration for Hall’s hair and makeup team. Johnny Wright, her hairstylist of more than 20 years, says the look was “the easiest we’ve had in all five seasons,” and her makeup artist Raul Otero agreed, adding, “In previous years, it was more of a production.”

Johnny Wright and Raul Otero prepare Tamron Hall before filming her Halloween episode.

ABC/Jeff Neira

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The self-proclaimed “huge Wizard of Oz fan,” Hall says she and her executive producer, Quiana Burns, were inspired by a surprise visit from Deborah Cox during the host’s birthday show last month.

Cox, 49, stars as Glinda in the highly-anticipated upcoming Broadway revival and returns for Monday’s episode, along with several other cast members The Wiz including Dorothy (Nichelle Lewis), Tin Man (Phillip Johnson Richardson), Scarecrow (Vote alum Avery Wilson) and Lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman).

Tamron Hall performs with the Broadway cast of ‘The Wiz’ for the Halloween episode of ‘The Tamron Hall Show’.

ABC/Jeff Neira

Hall is delighted to have a “phenomenal” cast with her in one of her favorite episodes of the year, although she admits the preparations that went into the show weren’t all that glamorous.

“Probe? It’s not that fun. When you’re with Broadway dancers and performers, and you’re trying to do it in sparkly heels,” she says of the episode’s opener, where she performs “Ease On Down The Road” with Lewis, Richardson, Wilson and Freeman.

She adds of the incoming Broadway cast: “They were very nice. You know our season 5 — the number 5 — represents grace, curiosity and freedom. So they were very curious if I could dance, they gave me grace when they saw I couldn’t, and they gave me the freedom to do some interpretive styles.”

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Deborah Cox dresses up as Glinda from ‘The Wiz’ at the ‘Tamron Hall Show’.

ABC/Jeff Neira

A look back at her upbringing – Hall hails from Luling, Texas, which she says “looks like the town shown in Wizard of Oz” — the Emmy Award-winning talk show host says her journey parallels Dorothy’s in more ways than one.

“I’m from a very small town and to me New York is and was Oz,” admits Hall. “It’s real.”

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He notes that he often thinks about one of Dorothy’s quotes from the movie: “It was in you all along.”

“That’s how I feel about my life. You know, when people ask me, ‘Are you surprised you have this show?’ I am in a way. But when I see my name on the show, it feels so good.”

To create an episode that was an ode to Oz and a story that resonated with her for so long, then, “it just felt good.”

“It’s our love letter to Broadway, our love letter Wizard,” she says.

Hall says she’s been surprised by how much her annual Halloween episodes have built over the past four years since she started her solo talk show. “I had no idea we would achieve such momentum,” she admits. “We debuted as Diahann Carroll [Dynasty] character of Dominique Deveraux, and then it just went from there.”

Last years she dressed as Ariel from Halle Bailey Little MermaidCardi B heavily pregnant and even another rendition of Diana Ross — recreating the “You Can’t Hurry Love” singer’s look from her Living in Central Park movie tour.

Hall says of the annual episode, “Ours is really a love letter to part glam, part fun, some of the things we’ve always loved.”

Tamron Hall dresses up as Dorothy inspired by Diana Ross from ‘The Wiz’ for the Halloween episode of ‘The Tamron Hall Show’.

ABC/Jeff Neira

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Hall adds that “the team is phenomenal” while praising the village it takes to prepare for a performance of this magnitude. “We really invested everything. We came to celebrate Halloween – or rather Hall“Oween?”

Holiday is her name verbatim written all over. “This is what I was meant to do,” he says while jokingly calling the day “Hall-oween,” pronounced as if it were her last name. “I was born for this.”

Tamron Hall airs weekdays (check local listings).

Kyle Ramar Freedman, Nichelle Lewis, Tamron Hall, Deborah Cox, Avery Wilson and Phillip Johnson Richards in ‘Tamron Hall’.

ABC/Jeff Neira

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Source: HIS Education