The stiff-jawed blonde broadcaster was a CNN staple until she was shown the door in 2007. Since, she's gone on to star in On the Case with Paula Zahn on Discovery.

A Miss Teenage America finalist, Zahn attended college on a music scholarship before jumping into TV news. She worked her way up the local news ladder from Dallas to Boston to LA, going national in 1987 when ABC hired her on Good Morning America. Zahn moved to CBS in 1990 and remained there for nine years, before accepting an offer from Roger Ailes to join Fox News as the host of her own show, The Edge with Paula Zahn. But two years later, after Ailes discovered that she'd been in discussions with CNN—and had received a $2 million a year job offer—he gave her the boot and sued her for breach of contract, bidding her adieu with the warmest of compliments: "A dead raccoon could get higher ratings."

Zahn spent six years at CNN—ominously, her first day there was Sept. 11, 2001—but she never seemed to find an audience, and less than stellar ratings sent her bouncing from one show to another including American Morning, Live from the Headlines, and finally Paula Zahn Now. None took, and after months of speculation over her fate, in July 2007 Zahn was unceremoniously tossed overboard by CNN president Jonathan Klein in favor of the younger, friendlier Weekend Today host Campbell Brown. Worse still was that news of her ouster was leaked to the press before Zahn had been formally notified by her bosses. She found a home in 2009 with Discovery Communications, and her show On the Case with Paula Zahn explores crime mysteries. [Image via Getty]