Executive Suite

6:00 AM PST 2/14/2012 by Marisa Guthrie

For PBS' Paula Kerger, "Downton Abbey's" on fire, and the GOP is taking aim: How the once-sleepy public broadcaster is suddenly Topic A.

Paula Kerger seems destined to have become the public face of PBS. Her grandfather, Ed Arnold, founded the public radio station WBJC in Baltimore, and PBS was a favorite channel in her Baltimore household when she was growing up. "I remember watching Masterpiece Theatre programs like The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth R and I, Claudius," she says. "Public media was always part of my life."