Paula Zahn CNN(Cable News Network) has a whole slew of attractive reporters, both male and female, but by far one of the station’s most direct, most incisive and most intelligent interviewers is Paula Zahn. Her evening program goes out at 6.00 pm ET, before Larry King Live takes to the airwaves at 9.00 pm ET. Paula Zahn was born on February 24th 1956 in Omaha, Nebraska to a mother who was a teacher and a father whose job, as an IBM sales executive, required him to move the family frequently. In the years that followed, the family lived in Canton, Ohio and Naperville, Illinois. Paula is one of four children. From an early age Paula had taken an interest in playing the cello and indeed excelled at the instrument to such an extent that she played at Carnegie Hall in 1992 with the New York Pops Orchestra. With her stunning looks and willowy, athletic stature she was a finalist in the 1973 Miss Teenage America Pageant.
Paula graduated from Naperville Central High School and her expertise with a cello earned her a scholarship to attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. While at college Paula explored her interest in broadcasting by working for the campus television station. She graduated in 1978 with a degree in journalism. Zahn first worked as an intern at WBBM-TV in Chicago and after ten years working in local news markets including Dallas, San Diego, Houston, Boston, and Los Angeles, she took an offer in 1987 to work at ABC News. Initially she was anchoring The Health Show, then moving on to anchor the network’s early morning newscast and news segments for Good Morning America. During her broadcasting career Paula has interviewed many celebrities, from sports to politicians to actors and singers, numbering among them are, Barbara Bush, Lance Armstrong, Colin Powell, George W Bush, Christopher Reeve and Rush LimbaughFor her skill in interviewing Paula has received a Gracie Award for her exclusive interview with Carmen bin Laden, Osama bin Laden’s sister, and over the years she has notched up several Emmy Awards. In 1990 Paula went to work at CBS News, co-anchoring CBS This Morning with Harry Smith. Over the next few years Paula was to anchor many news shows including, CBS Evening News, where she stood in for Dan Rather, 48 Hours, Public Eye with Bryant Gumble, and CBS News Sunday Morning.
After nine years at CBS News, she moved to cable news at the Fox News Channel where Paula experienced the first significant setback of her career on September 5, 2001. She was fired by FOX News for breach of contract. The network alleged she was in secret negotiations with CNN. In a legal hearing the judge thought otherwise and FOX News' subsequent suit was tossed out by a New York State Supreme Court judge. After leaving Fox News on the Wednesday, Paula was not unemployed for long. She started work with CNN the very next morning. It was only six days after beginning her career at CNN that she would find herself reporting behind CNN's news desk covering the devastating aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. I n 2003, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, Zahn moved back to prime time, hosting a 2-hour program labeled Live from the Headlines. Anderson Cooper took over the first of the two hours by early summer, and by September, her show Paula Zahn NOW premiered. The success of the Paula Zahn NOW program is in the main due to its ability to not only cover the important news and current affairs but also to explore various issues such as obesity, religion, racism and immigration with a fair and broad view. Paula and her husband, real estate tycoon Richard Cohen, have been married for twenty years and have three children, a daughter Haley, and two sons Jared and Austin. She gave birth to her last child in 1997. In 2004 Paula and her husband were catapulted into the Manhattan spotlight when the couple’s swanky building at 927 Fifth Avenue became the nesting place of two lovebird hawks who had perched themselves on the ornamental exterior stonework. The couple had the birds evicted which set off a global outcry, including a protest by Mary Tyler Moore, who lived in the same block at the time. It was rumoured, but unsubstantiated, in April 2007 that Paula and her husband Richard were seeking a divorce. ABB |
