Rihanna has accused TV bosses of punishing her for someone else's mistakes. Photo: Reuters
CBS has pulled the song Run This Town from its Thursday Night Football telecast for the rest of the season after Rihanna, who is featured on the track, expressed anger with the US network on Twitter.
CBS first pulled the song last week, saying it wouldn't set the right tone given the ongoing domestic violence scandal involving Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice. The hit track had been reworked with a comedic segment featuring Don Cheadle.
The network was going to bring the song back until Rihanna, who was a victim of domestic violence in 2009, accused TV bosses of punishing her for someone else's mistakes and insisted she did not want them running the track in this week's show.
CBS then decided to run the track for this week's football game, but Rihanna was not having it. She cussed them out on twitter, telling the network, 'F*ck You!'. Continue...
After her protest, CBS decided not to play the intro. New York Times reporter Bill Carterannounced it on twitter...
"CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, F--- you! Y'all are sad for penalising me for this," Rihanna tweeted.
Last week, after the suspension of Rice, CBS dropped the celebratory opening for its new package of NFL games in favor of pregame coverage of the breaking news, along with commentary about domestic violence. Included in the original opening was backing music fromRun This Town, a rendition of a song by Jay-Z, featuring Kanye West and Rihanna.
Rihanna was left battered and bruised after she was beaten by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown following a pre-Grammy Awards party in 2009. Brown was later convicted of assault for attacking the singer.
CBS' top sports executive, Sean McManus, had said that Rihanna's previous connection to incidents involving domestic violence played some hand in the decision to drop the song last week, though it was not the main reason for the change.
CBS, which had planned to bring Run This Town back this week, will now use a substitute theme for the rest of the season.
"Beginning this Thursday, we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of ourThursday Night Football open," CBS Sports said in a statement. "We will be using our newly created Thursday Night Football theme music to open our game broadcast."
The rest of the opening, which includes an appearance by the actor Don Cheadle, will run as planned, CBS said.
The NFL is grappling with negative publicity from a number of domestic violence incidents.
Earlier this week, the Radisson hotel chain suspended a sponsorship deal with the Minnesota Vikings over accusations involving one of its players, Adrian Peterson.
Professional football is the most popular and valuable programming on broadcast and cable television.
Last week's Thursday Night Football ranked as the second most-watched prime-time show, with an audience of 20.8 million, according to Nielsen data. NBC's Sunday Night Football was first with 22.2 million viewers, while Monday Night Football on Walt Disney's ESPN led cable ratings with an audience of 13.7 million.
CBS paid $250 million to $300 million for rights to eight Thursday night games, Michael Morris, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities in New York, estimated earlier this year.
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