A longtime Fox News executive died on Friday at the age of 47 after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.
Alan Komissaroff, senior vice president of news and politics at Fox News, had been with the TV channel since its creation in 1996. He rose through the network’s ranks until he was overseeing all its political coverage, according to Fox News.
According to a GoFundMe campaign benefitting his two children, Komissaroff began feeling unwell while exercising at home on Jan. 8. His heart stopped as paramedics took him to the hospital, and he entered a coma, never to regain consciousness.
He leaves behind his wife of more than 20 years, Rachael, and two children: Ben, 17, and Olivia, 13. The campaign raising money for their future had raised $233,946 at the time of writing.
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In a co-written memo sent to colleagues, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace wrote that they were “completely heartbroken.”
“Alan was a leader and mentor throughout FOX News Media who was integral to our daily news operations and played an indispensable role in every election cycle,” they wrote. “The recent midterm election coverage was easily one of the finest nights of special coverage he produced throughout his career. And he was the ultimate producer: breaking news, politics, special events — there was no steadier or more trusted colleague to be with in the control room during the most consequential events of our time, and his incisiveness and passion for news made our work better.”
Komissaroff described Election Night as “our Super Bowl” in a 2020 interview with Adweek, adding, “we try to outdo ourselves every cycle.”
“Our deepest condolences are with them and Alan’s entire extended family as we collectively mourn the loss of a wonderful man,” wrote Scott and Wallace in the memo.
Fox News’ website hosts a clip from when Komissaroff was 37 and had recently suffered six consecutive cardiac arrests. He explained in the clip his medical history leading to the near-death incident.
“I’d been warned by my doctor: high cholesterol, family history. I was a ticking time bomb, I think is what my doctor told me at one point,” he said. “I always thought there was time. I always thought there was another year to quit smoking, to get on a diet, to lose some weight. There wasn’t.”
The original version of this story reported that the clip about Komissaroff’s earlier cardiac arrests couldn’t be played. A Fox News representative reached out later in the day to say the clip was functional again. The story has been updated to reflect information in the clip.
