Paula Zahn currently anchors her own TV show on CNN, "Paula Zahn Now". The show airs every weekday evening at 8 o'clock EST. The news based program deals with current issues including live interviews and analytical commentaries from a wealth of contributers. She also hosts CNN's People In The News, with People Magazine, which features noteworthy individuals from all walks of life.
Paula Zahn was born February 24, 1956 in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father worked for IBM and was transferred often.
Zahn began playing the cello at the age of five. She graduated from Naperville High School in 1974 and went on to attend Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri on a cello scholarship. She was a reporter for the college TV station and did an internship one summer at a Chicago television station. She graduated from Stephens with a degree in journalism.
She was hired as a reporter at WFAA-TV in Dallas but relocated to San Diego, Houston and Boston before settling in LA at KCBS-TV. She worked there for a few years and in 1987 gave up her dream job. She moved back to Boston and married Richard Cohen, an old neighbor.
It wasn't long before she was back to work, this time for ABC. She became the host of World News This Morning. In 1988 she was sitting in for Joan Lunden , the day after the Pan Am flight 103 tragedy, and did very well covering the story. CBS was so impressed that she was hired to host CBS This Morning. She held that position for six years. She helped cover the Winter Olympics in 1992 and in 1994. Also in 1992 Zahn made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops orchestra playing the cello of course.
In 1999 she signed on with Fox News and had her own show The Edge With Paula Zahn. After a couple of years she was fired when Fox discovered she had been talking with CNN. On September 5, 2001 she was hired by CNN but wanted some time off before starting. But a few days later the gates of hell opened in lower Manhatten. After she saw the attack on the World Trade Center buildings she went to work and providing continuous on-scene coverage.
Zahn has been awarded seven Emmys, the Spirit of Life award from City of Hope Cancer Center, a citation from Beth Israel Medical Center for her contributions to the battle against breast cancer and many other distinguished honors. She and her husband have three children. When did she find the time?
"I think my generation of women was fed a bunch of myths
about what it means to be a working mother. You can't have it all.
You can't have it all at the same time"
-Paula Zahn
Sources:
"Lifetime's Intimate Portrait" (http://lifetimetv.com/shows/ip/portraits/0203/0203_bio.html)
"CNN Programs -Anchors/Reporters - Paula Zahn" (http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/zahn.paula.html)
"Paula Zahn Class of 1974" (http://www.ncusd203.org/central/html/why/specialr/alumni/zahn.html)