For three years after parting ways with NBC, Maria Shriver was still collecting fat cheques from the network. Abandoning her Dateline gig in February 2004, three months after husband Arnold Schwarzenegger was named governor of California, Shriver stayed on NBC's payroll through 2007, receiving anywhere from $100,000 to $1,000,000 per year as part of her "exit agreement."

Rather than fire her, which would've forced the peacock to cough up her full fee for the remaining three years on her contract, they reached a deal to let her collect a portion of her salary while leaving open the possibility of returning. So while Shriver wasn't on NBC's airwaves and potentially overseeing bias news reports because of her marriage, she quietly maintained a financial arrangement with one of the world's largest news organizations.

So why didn't Shriver ever make her return? It wasn't because of potential conflicts of interest — she was fine with that. Rather, it was the grotesque coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's that permanently turned her off from television news. So she'll keep her singular role as California's first lady, rooted in politics: a much less seedy industry.