“I Say, For The Last Time, Back To The Lovely And Talented Paula”

Paula Zahn signed off for the last time, last night calling her six-year run at CNN “a remarkable journey.” The goodbye included a five-minute ‘best of Paula’ montage that one emailer writes was “decently done.” Zahn called the breaking news from Minneapolis “a strange but fitting bookend.” Her first day on the network was 9/11/01.

But Zahn’s final moments on CNN were, in the words of another emailer, “weird.” After the montage, Zahn tossed to Larry King to chat about what was coming up on his show. Then she mentioned that two of her three kids were in the studio, but they stayed in the wings, creating a moment the emailer called “bizarre.” After a pause, with King still part of the chat, Zahn said “I didn’t even know we were still on the air.”

The program went to commercial, then Zahn came back and thanked the viewers and “all the people behind the scenes.” But they weren’t playing either, she applauded their work, but couldn’t get them to come to the set. “They’re all so shy tonight.” And with that, Paula Zahn bid farewell to CNN.

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