Protesters crash Ryan Lochte's Dancing With the Stars debut


This season of Dancing With the Stars got off to a weird start, with at least one audience member allegedly rushing onstage during the live taping and catching everyone, including dancer Ryan Lochte and his partner Cheryl Burke, by surprise.
Judge Carrie Ann Inaba was commenting on the pair's performance Monday night when the drama took place, Variety reports. Inaba told the unseen perpetrator, "Excuse me! Hey, back off!" and at one point, it appeared as though someone darted in front of the camera, but their face couldn't be seen. Host Tom Bergeron, standing next to a very confused-looking Lochte, finally announced it was time for a break. When the commercial was over, Bergeron said "a little incident" took place, and praised the show's security for "staying in shape." Lochte said he was "a little hurt" by what happened, and was out there doing something he was "completely not comfortable with."
ABC News' Jason Nathanson later tweeted a photo of two people wearing anti-Lochte shirts who were "cuffed for rushing the stage" during the swimmer's performance. Lochte made waves outside of the pool during the Rio Olympics when he reported an incident between security guards at a gas station and a group of U.S. swimmers, later acknowledging that he had "over-exaggerated" the encounter.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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