CBS pulls Rihanna intro from Thursday Night Football, citing Ray Rice backlash
By Dan Zinski
Thursday night’s first TNF broadcast under the new CBS-NFL Network deal was supposed to feature an intro by pop superstar Rihanna, but CBS is reportedly scrapping this opening in response to the lingering Ray Rice backlash.
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Per Richard Deitsch of SI.com, CBS is ditching a planned comedy segment along with the Rihanna video, which would have featured Don Cheadle doing a spoken-word intro over the sultry pop star’s performance of the song “Run This Town.”
Instead of Rihanna and some comedy, CBS will run a report by Norah O’Donnell, who on Wednesday conducted an interview with commissioner Roger Goodell.
The pregame show will reportedly steer away from on-the-field discussion of the Steelers-Ravens matchup and instead focus on the controversy over commissioner Goodell and his handling of the Rice investigation.
CBS Sports chairman Shaun McManus said:
"“It’s important to realize we are not overacting to this story but it is as big a story as has faced the NFL,” McManus told SI.com from Baltimore Thursday afternoon. “We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage. A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.”"
The NFL received additional criticism, on top of the backlash over Rice, for their decision to open TNF’s inaugural CBS broadcast with a performance by Rihanna, a woman who was herself at the center of a high-profile domestic violence case.
Now thanks to the Rice backlash, there will be no Rihanna opening and no discussion of actual football during the pregame show for a football game. Thank Goodell.