A weatherwoman for CBS Los Angeles and a former Miss America contender collapsed live on camera, falling to the floor, much to the dismay of shocked co-hosts who didn’t seem to notice their colleague’s convulsed expression and a laboring stance.
The incident occurred during the 7:00 a.m. broadcast on Saturday, March 18. As hosts Nichelle Medina and Rachel Kim ran a brief verbal prelude to introduce weatherwoman Alissa Carlson Schwartz, video footage shows Schwartz, attempting to maintain a smile, lean forward with both arms on the desk in front of her.
One of the co-hosts says “Alissa, this really is the calm before the storm,” appearing to refer to what was to be the regularly scheduled weather forecast. But almost as if on cue, as the words leave her mouth, Schwartz’s eyes roll into the back of her head, she collapses forward into the desk, and then falls out of her chair behind the desk and out of sight.
Schwartz’s co-workers seemed to be totally caught off guard by the transpiring event and quickly called for a commercial break.
A March 19 news segment published on the NBC website described the events as a “Terrifying On-Air Collapse.”
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In a statement issued to entertainment tabloid TMZ, Mike Dello Stritto, CBS LA Vice President and News Director admitted to the public, “Our colleague Alissa Carlson became ill during our 7 AM newscast this morning. I want to thank her co-workers who took immediate action to comfort Alissa and call 911.”
Dello Stritto added that, “Alissa is being treated at the hospital right now.”
TMZ said that the broadcast went off the air after the incident, filling the time segment with pre-recorded pieces.
An update posted to Schwartz’s Facebook account stating simply, “Thanks for all the texts, calls, and well wishes. I am going to be okay!” was published the same day.
Social media is abuzz with speculation as to whether Schwartz’s episode was caused from an adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccine considering nearly all big name companies mandated acceptance as a condition of employment during the pseudo-pandemic.
A second update posted by Schwartz on March 19 stated that she was recovering from a head injury incurred during the fall. One photo included in the post says, “Thankfully, it’s not my heart this time.”
TMZ’s article stated that Schwartz suffered from a similar trouble in 2014 where she was “throwing up on set during a weather report when she was at a different station” and found herself diagnosed with a leaky heart valve.
NBC’s segment stated that the diagnosis inspired Schwartz to get healthier and become a certified health coach. Schwartz told the outlet that doctors found after she had given birth to her daughter that the valve had appeared to have started to repair itself.
Schwartz appears to have previously worked for KGET News, the NBC affiliate for Kern County, California, which publicized Carr in 2018 for placing top 15 in the Miss America pageant.
A 2018 Twitter post by women’s sorority Sigma Sigma Sigma congratulated Schwartz for having won the Miss California title.
Schwartz’s episode was mirrored by one very similar involving a young female Canadian reporter in January.
Jessica Robb, employed with Bell Media node CTV’s Edmonton branch began slurring her words, stuttering, alluded to being about to faint, and then appeared to collapse just before the camera was cut during a live broadcast for the evening news outside of the Edmonton courthouse on Jan. 8.
While Bell Media mandated acceptance of COVID vaccination for all employees in August of 2021, Robb had a tweet published in April of 2022 lamenting a positive COVID PCR test despite her triple vaccinated status.
The instances are the most recent batch of calamities hitting the media industry. In December, ABC News lost two senior employees to sudden death.
The first was ABC News10 San Diego producer Erica Gonzalez, who was announced to have passed away in her sleep from undisclosed causes by the network on Dec. 21, 2022.
A photograph included with the announcement by the network showed what appeared to be an early 30s and in-shape woman working at a production booth.
But a more notable case was that of ABC News producer for high profile host George Stephanopoulos, Dax Tejera, an extremely fit 37-year-old whose life was taken by a sudden heart attack on Dec. 23, according to the network.
ABC News is notable because it’s owned by the Walt Disney Corporation, which has faced lawsuits from former staff members who said their requests for religious exemptions to the company’s mandatory vaccination policy were totally ignored.
On Jan. 20, Senior Vice President of News & Politics at Fox news, Alan Komissaroff, age 47, was announced by the network as having “died on Friday after suffering a heart attack at his home earlier this month.”
A GoFundMe page for Komissaroff started by the family told the story, “On Sunday, January 8th, Alan was exercising at home, when he came upstairs and told Rachael [his wife] he wasn’t feeling well.”
“She called 911, and his heart stopped while paramedics were taking him to the hospital. He slipped into a coma, and never regained consciousness,” it added.
