CBS Rihanna's theme song "Run This Town" was actually set to play over a narration that was made by Don Cheadle for the broadcast of the Ravens-Steelers game that aired on Thursday night. However, CBS decided to pull out the singer's opening theme song from the game.
CBS Rihanna herself was a victim of domestic violence back in 2009 in the hands of her boyfriend at the time, Chris Brown. Ray Rice, a running back for the Ravens, was cut from the team and was suspended indefinitely this week by the NFL after a video of him beating up his fiancé Janay Palmer inside an elevator broke out on the Internet.
In addition to cutting CBS Rihanna, CBS also opted to scrap a comedic segment that was initially planned for the broadcast. Instead, the pre-game show will now be opened with a report made by Norah O'Donnell, an anchor of CBS "This Morning." O'Donnell was the anchor who got to interview the NFL Commissioner shortly after the Ray Rice assault video became viral.
Sean McManus, the CBS Sports chairman, told Sports Illustrated, "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."
Judy Battista, a report of the NFL Network, will also be reporting from the headquarters of the league during the pre-game show. Battista will be inserting some updates about the ongoing case of Rice every now and then.
Furthermore, McManus also added that the on-air staff of the network will refrain from offering their opinions on the growing number of requests to have Goodell resign. However, McManus did admit that "we will certainly present all the different points of view."
Apparently, the show must go on for the NFL, only this time, without CBS Rihanna, as reported by Sports Illustrated.
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