A CBS Evening News cameraman collapsed during a live broadcast from Taiwan on May 13, 2026, forcing anchor Tony Dokoupil to abruptly halt the program and call for medical assistance as audio of the crisis played out on air.
Randy Schmidt, 56, suffered a medical emergency while working behind the camera during a recent broadcast. Viewers heard a loud thud off-camera, followed by Dokoupil’s voice asking, “Is he OK?” The camera shook violently before the feed cut to supplemental footage of Chinese landscapes.
“We’re going to take a quick break. We have a medical emergency here,” Dokoupil told viewers, explaining the team was “calling a doctor.” The broadcast then handed off to CBS correspondent John Dickerson in New York, who signed off for the night.
The CBS Evening News account on X clarified the situation, confirming Schmidt’s medical emergency and assuring viewers that the cameraman was “okay and recovering.”
Ratings Pressure Mounts on a Struggling Anchor
The medical crisis erupted during an already troubled broadcast for a program hemorrhaging viewers under Dokoupil’s leadership. CBS Evening News ratings have been in free fall since the anchor took over earlier this year in a rocky debut during which he introduced himself twice within 80 seconds and openly admitted, “first day, big problems here.”
Recent ratings painted a grim picture: an average of 3.7 million total viewers and just 473,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 demographic — the lowest Adults 25-54 demo rating in the program’s history. By comparison, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.2 million viewers and 976,000 in the demo, while NBC Nightly News pulled 6.1 million viewers and 903,000 in the demo.
The optics were stark. While Dokoupil scrambled in Taipei, NBC News anchor Tom Llamas and ABC News anchor David Muir were both broadcasting from Beijing — roughly 1,070 miles away — where President Trump had landed for the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It remains unclear whether the issue stemmed from a late application or another complication.
Dokoupil had been broadcasting from Taipei — a fallback location chosen after he failed to secure a visa for the People’s Republic of China — when Schmidt collapsed during the show’s closing segment. The veteran journalist froze mid-sentence, abandoned his scripted introduction of the summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and asked the question viewers across America heard in real time: “Is he OK?”
Cascade of Technical Failures
Schmidt’s collapse capped a broadcast that had been plagued by problems from the outset. Dokoupil struggled visibly with his earpiece throughout the program. When CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, reporting from Beijing, tried to toss the broadcast back to Dokoupil with a simple “Tony,” the feed cut to a confused anchor clutching his earpiece. He remained silent for roughly eight seconds before recovering, thanking Jiang and moving on. A similarly awkward pause unfolded after foreign correspondent Anna Coren wrapped her segment.
An Emmy-winning network television executive described the program as “amateur, amateur, amateur hour” and dubbed it a “cascade failure.”
Before the chaos erupted, Dokoupil had attempted to frame the stakes of his Taipei posting. “On the surface, it might look like all the action is over there,” he told viewers, gesturing toward Beijing. “But if you zoom out from the state visit, you see one of the most important geopolitical stories of our time.”
A Last-Minute Deployment From Tokyo
Schmidt, a longtime fixture of CBS News’ now-shuttered Tokyo bureau, was dispatched to Taiwan on extraordinarily short notice, sources told the New York Post. He was informed on short notice that he would need to fly to Taipei to support Dokoupil’s coverage of the Trump-Xi summit.
According to the reporting, Schmidt boarded a flight and arrived in Taiwan that same day, with limited time to prepare before the broadcast aired. The tight timeline raised questions about adequate preparation time before going on air.
One critic alleged Schmidt had worked an exhausting shift before collapsing, but a CBS News source pushed back, saying the cameraman had downtime and rested before the broadcast. According to the network source, a local producer and fixer was physically with Schmidt from the start, additional crew members arrived before airtime, and Schmidt remained in contact with CBS operations staff throughout the setup.
Schmidt brought his own broadcast equipment from Tokyo — standard practice for freelancers. Schmidt traveled with multiple gear cases and carry-on bags, and was paid extra because CBS used his equipment. A driver hired by the network helped transport the equipment from the airport.
For Dokoupil and the team behind him, the questions raised by the broadcast — about preparation, planning and the strategic missteps that left CBS in the wrong China — appear far from resolved.
