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

The Emmy winner tells PEOPLE of the episode, “It’s our love letter to Broadway"

Tamron Hall channeled a character she’s long admired and resonated with for Halloween this year.

On Tuesday's episode of the Tamron Hall show, the host transforms into a Diana Ross-inspired version of Dorothy from The Wiz, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. It’s a decision Hall says “feels so right.”

“Many times in interviews, I have referenced The Wizard of Oz because so much of my life, I feel, lines up with the character,” the television personality, 53, tells PEOPLE ahead of the Halloween episode’s taping.

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To embody Diana Ross’ Dorothy, Hall wore a light blue knee-length skirt, a baby pink long-sleeve blouse with ruffle details at the cuffs and collar and a pair of silver bedazzled stilettos. It’s “really a ‘70s look,” her costume designer, Domino, notes.

He shares that he based the look off the poster for the 1978 version of The Wiz, starring Ross, pulling on the “color” and “vibrant” feel of the image.

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

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

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

Hall raves about having the “phenomenal” cast with her for one of her favorite episodes of the year, though she admits that the preparation that went into the show was not so glamorous.

“Rehearsal? Not so fun. When you’re with Broadway dancers and performers, and you’re trying to do it in glittery high heels,” she says of the episode’s opening number, where she performs “Ease On Down The Road” with Lewis, Richardson, Wilson and Freeman.

She adds of the incoming Broadway cast, “They were very gracious. 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 the grace when they saw that I couldn’t, and they’ve given me the freedom to do some interpretive styles.”

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Reflection on her upbringing — Hall hails from Luling, Texas, which she says “looks like the town featured in The Wizard of Oz” — the Emmy-Award winning talk show host says that her journey has paralleled Dorothy’s in more ways than one.

“I am from a very small town, and for me, New York is and was Oz,” Hall admits. “It really is.”

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

“I feel that way about my life. You know, when people ask me, ‘Are you surprised that you have this show?’ I am in some ways. But when I see my name on the show, it just feels so right.”

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

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

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

In years past, she’s dressed up as Halle Bailey’s Ariel from The Little Mermaid, a very pregnant Cardi B and even another rendition of Diana Ross — she recreated the “You Can’t Hurry Love” singer’s look from her Live in Central Park tour movie.

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

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Hall adds that “the team is phenomenal” as she praises the village that it takes to prepare for a show of this scale. “We really put it all in. We come to celebrate Halloween — or should I say Hall-oween?”

It’s a holiday that her name is literally written all over. “I was meant for this,” she says as she jokingly refers to the day as “Hall-oween,” pronounced as though it was her own surname. “I was born for this.”

Tamron Hall airs weekdays (check local listings).

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