Last night, Dancing With the Stars' producers did their best not to show the protesters who stormed the stage after Ryan Lochte's first performance. Viewers at home only saw judge Carrie Ann Inaba react to them, saying "Excuse me!" repeatedly before Tom Bergeron tossed to a commercial. That's all well and good — ABC likely prefers not to reward stage-crashers with airtime. Still, we've been curious to see what all the fuss was about.
Entertainment Tonight has posted a video that shows two men running in front of the judges, wearing anti-Lochte shirts; in no time at all, security tackles them to the floor, which you can also see in an Instagram video shot from the audience by Lochte's teammate Ed Moses. He also panned over to get a look at some women in the same protest shirts yelling "liar" from the back of the audience. Moses took another video showing Lochte and dancing partner Cheryl Burke getting a standing ovation after the protesters were removed from the studio.
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"Honestly, it felt like someone just reached inside, took my heart out, and tore it to shreds," the gold medalist told ET after the show. “I was really hurt when I saw that and I was in shock. But I looked at Cheryl and she just smiled and said, ‘You just did what you said you can’t do. You danced in front of millions.’ And I was like, ‘You’re right.’”
Lochte has faced his share of public anger after the Rio Olympics; he and teammates Gunnar Bentz, James Feigen, and Jack Conger broke the door of a gas station and then lied to police claiming they were robbed at gunpoint. Many take issue with the fact that Lochte was a privileged, white visitor using the city's reputation for crime to cover up his own bad behavior. He's been suspended from the U.S. team for 10 months and must do 20 hours of community service; he also forfeited hefty bonus pay for his gold medal. Dancing With the Stars is seen as one way he can rehabilitate his image. This protest shows that some still aren't having it.