Protesters ‘Storm’ Lochte on ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Disgraced Olympian Ryan Lochte was met by protestors during his first performance on Dancing with the Stars, as two people rushed the stage and were immediately restrained. Lochte, who caused an international incident during the Rio Olympics, was getting a judge’s critique for his foxtrot when the incident happened.

"Two individuals stormed the dance floor tonight and were immediately subdued and escorted out of the building," a spokesperson for the company that produces Dancing with the Stars, BBC Worldwide Productions, told CNN.

Although the show was live, the incident was not shown on camera by ABC, with the lens focused on judge Carrie Ann Inaba as she yelled "Excuse me!" at the protestors. ABC went to a commercial break, and host Tom Bergeron addressed the situation after the ads. "We had to go to break because we had a little incident," he said

The stage-stormers, wearing t-shirts sporting the word Lochte with a slash through it, were taken away in handcuffs.

Four or five women were yelling anti-Lochte chants, including “Liar!”, around the same time the incident happened, according to ABC News.

No one was harmed.

An Olympic swimmer, Lochte caused a global stir when he claimed to be held up at gunpoint in Rio but was later found to have trashed a gas station restroom after a night of partying.

It was the season premiere of Dancing.  

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.