COLUMBIA — In her new Lifetime Christmas movie, Nischelle Turner plays a runaway bride who returns to her hometown seeking refuge. The Entertainment Tonight co-host may work in Hollywood, but her heart has stayed in Columbia, Missouri.
Turner stars in “A Runaway Bride for Christmas,” part of Lifetime’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” holiday programming slate. In the film, her character, Emma, returns to the only town she’s ever called home, where she unexpectedly falls for her former high school crush.
“My mama loves a Lifetime movie, so if I’m going to do a Lifetime movie, I’m going to give Jackie Turner two hours of me,” Turner said.
Her mother, Jacqueline Turner, said she’s loved Lifetime movies long before her daughter got to star in one.
“She’s always been full of surprises, especially when it comes to me,” Jacqueline Turner said. “She’s always had something up her sleeve, some kind of surprise for me.”
“I have this T-shirt that I wear that says, ‘I’m just a kid from Como’ on it. And that is genuinely who I am and how I live my life,” Nischelle Turner said. “I’m born and raised in Columbia, Missouri. Grew up in Pierpont on Fox Lane on a gravel road, on the farm. I’m a country girl to my core and that’s what I know and that still is who I am.”
Those who’ve known Nischelle Turner longest aren’t surprised she keeps surprising them.
Nicole Summerall has been Turner’s best friend since she first spotted her in seventh grade.
“We were there on our ‘pick up your schedule and locker day’ and she was doing cartwheels down the hallway,” Summerall said. “So I will always remember that, as like ‘who is that? and maybe we should be friends.'”
“It’s more family than friendship in some ways,” Summerall said.
“Nicole has been one of my very best friends since the seventh grade; we fell in love with each other and have never fallen out of love,” Nischelle Turner said. “She’s just an incredible person and an incredible woman.”
Nischelle Turner professional home has always been KOMU 8, where she worked 16-hour shifts nearly every weekend during her senior year at the University of Missouri.
“I’m a product of KOMU. That was my first job,” Nischelle Turner said. “I remember, I would come in at 7 o’clock in the morning, and I’d work the assignment desk. I’d go out and report at 2 in the afternoon, I’d come back and I’d put the pieces together, then I’d anchor the 10 o’clock news. The people at KOMU and the people at Mizzou believed in me, and I worked really hard, and 27 years later here we are.” Turner said.
But her journey to journalism started even earlier — in her living room in Pierpont.
“I was about 12 or 13 years old, I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sitting in my living room in my family’s house on Fox Lane out in Pierpont, and I was watching KOMU,” Turner said. “I saw a girl come on the screen, her name was April Eaton, and it was the first time I’d ever seen a woman who looked like me doing the news. And it stopped me cold. I sat up, and I looked, and something in me just switched. I started thinking, ‘Could I do that?’ and that led me on my road to pursuing journalism.”
From that moment, Turner decided to embrace every opportunity.
“I decided early on to open myself up to anything, and not really say no to anything, and work from a place of ‘yes,'” she said.
That philosophy took her from KOMU 8 to the sidelines of NFL games as a reporter for Fox NFL Sunday.
“I called it my personal track meet… my three-hour track meet,” Turner said. “To have the best seat in the house every week for NFL football, can’t get better than that. I loved every single moment of it.”
Eventually, that “yes” philosophy led her to Entertainment Tonight, where in 2021 she became the first Black woman to co-host the show in its history.
“This is my life’s work. There were only two things ever in my life that I thought I may want to do as a career — that was either be an attorney or a journalist,” Turner said.
Summerall has watched every chapter unfold.
“I think I’m always surprised and not surprised — there is no end to what she can accomplish,” Summerall said. “From sideline sports, to the bride in a movie.”
Turner celebrates the path she’s walked and those who came before her.
“It really means everything to me to keep my family’s name and legacy alive, and thriving. Because that’s what we do it for, we say in my family, we do it for the name on the back of the jersey and we definitely do,” she said. “For me, just to be a Turner, in this world, doing things that my family is super proud of… it means everything. To do this, also being a Black woman in this world, you know that’s how I walk through this world first and foremost. I stand on the shoulders of greatness, in this career as a journalist, and in the entertainment industry as a whole. In my little corner of this universe, I’m very excited to try and represent the best that I can.”
Her mother saw something special from the beginning.
“I knew she was special since birth, I knew she was a special little girl, but I never knew she was going to have as much success as she’s had,” Jacqueline Turner said.
Summerall remembers Nischelle Turner’s fearless attitude even as a teenager.
“She was good at everything she did, that’s how I saw it. Good at sports, good at cheerleading, good at broadcasting, good at everything,” Summerall said.
“Nischelle’s always had that,” Jacqueline Turner said. “They had that no fear attitude, ‘bring it on’. I’ll talk in front of a camera, or I’ll do this, I’ll do flips in the hallway. Her love for knowledge, and people, I think that’s her driving force.” Jacqueline Turner said.
Through it all, Nischelle Turner carries the wisdom her grandmother gave her growing up.
“Growing up my grandmother always told me to dream bigger than my surroundings. She always told me, you know, to go forth and do things I didn’t necessarily think were possible,” Nischelle Turner said. “Thankfully I have the best and the most supportive family in the world. We have a hashtag we use, #Turnerstrong. They support me with every single fiber in their being, and I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t.”
And she has one piece of advice for anyone in the business.
“You’ve got to love this business, you have to love everything about it,” Nischelle Turner said.
“A Runaway Bride for Christmas” is now streaming on Lifetime TV.