WISC Anchor Fights Through On-Air Seizure

WISC Madison anchor Sarah Carlson suffered an epileptic seizure during the 6 p.m. news yesterday, reports the relaunched TVSpy, but bravely soldiered on and delivered her segment.

Writes TVSpy:

At the beginning of WISC‘s 6 p.m. newscast on Tuesday, Carlson was delivering the news that Wisconsin would join other states in a lawsuit against President Obama’s health care overhaul. Towards the end of the report, the veteran anchor begins to slur her words and for a moment her speech becomes unintelligible.

Miraculously, though, Carlson is able to finish. When the camera cuts to Carlson’s co-anchor Susan Siman, a moment of surprise registers on her face before she plows ahead with the newscast’s next segment. Carlson left the newscast following the incident and Siman finished it solo.

WISC News Director Colin Benedict told the Wisconsin State Journal that Carlson is doing fine, and that he expects Carlson to continue anchoring.

Carlson previously suffered an on-air seizure at WMTV Madison, says TVSPY. She joined WISC in December after having surgery to remove a non-cancerous brain tumor, and said she was nearly seizure-free.

Here’s a clip of Carlson when she announced she was joining WISC last month.

In the clip, Carlson openly discusses the illness that put her career on hold.

“My life is back to normal, and now my career is back to normal,” she said.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.