See, boys and girls, dropping F-Bombs can get you into trouble, even when you do it on Twitter. Rihanna learned that the hard way today, as CBS decided to cancel the Rihanna / Jay Z Thursday Night Football opener that was scheduled to run this week.
The Rihanna / Jay Z Thursday Night Football opener was originally supposed to run last week. In light of the Ray Rice domestic abuse situation, CBS decided instead to run a segment with its reporters to discuss the situation head-on.
At the time, CBS announced plans to run the Rihanna / Jay Z Thursday Night Football opener in this week’s Buccaneers / Falcons game. Looks like that won’t be happening after all.
CBS today canceled the musical segment outright after saying it would be “moving in a different direction” with its opener. CBS’ decision was a direct result of F-bombs Rihanna tweeted last week after learning her opener with Jay Z had been postponed.
At the time, Rihanna took to Twitter and said “CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, F*** you! Y’all are sad for penalizing me for this.”
The irony of CBS pulling the opener last week is thick. Rihanna herself is a survivor of a highly publicized abusive relationship with hip-hop star Chris Brown.
CBS at the time said the tone of the Rihanna / Jay Z Thursday Night Football opener simply didn’t fit. The song was a rendition of the 2009 song “Run This Town” that she recorded with Jay Z. Moving it to this week made sense in that regard, but now the opener’s been canned completely.
In a statement on CBS Sports, the company said “Beginning this Thursday, we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of our Thursday Night Football open. We will be using our newly created ‘Thursday Night Football’ theme music to open our game broadcast.”
Rihanna’s F-bomb Twitter rant had 12,810 retweets and 15,222 favorites. It’s unlikely that CBS Sports’ statement will see that same viral trajectory.
Jay Z, to his credit, has remained mum the entire time and stayed out of the fray.