Question

UPDATE table1, tmpList
  SET table1.ts = tmpList.ts_value
WHERE table1.id = tmpList.id

UPDATE table2, tmpList
  SET table2.ts = tmpList.ts_value
WHERE table2.id = tmpList.id

I’m using MySQL

Answer 1

Assuming every id appears in both tables (ideally only once):

update tmpList inner join table1 using (id) inner join table2 using (id)
    set table1.ts = tmpList.ts_value, table2.ts=tmpList.ts_value;

Update: simply using left joins instead of inner joins makes this work even for ids that are only in one table – the inapplicable set clause seems to just be skipped; I should have tried it earlier, apparently.