After a dust-up last week, Rihanna says she doesn't want her performance of the song "Run This Town" to air on "Thursday Night Football" this week.
CBS is saying "fine" -- if you don't want the airtime, we won't give it.
"Beginning this Thursday,
we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of our
'Thursday Night Football' open," CBS said in a statement.
"Run This Town" will be replaced by theme music -- apparently for the rest of the season, not just for this week.
The network's decision was announced Tuesday morning, a few hours after Rihanna criticized the network on Twitter.
"CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO," she wrote, followed by an expletive.
"Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this," she added.
After CBS weighed in,
however, the company that owns the rights to the song, Roc Nation, said
the change stemmed from its revocation of the rights.
"Due to the misuse and
misrepresentation of Rihanna's name and participation in connection to
CBS' TNF, CBS was not allowed to license and utilize the song 'Run This
Town.' Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song's usage," the
company said in a statement.
Rihanna recorded a
special version of "Run This Town" for CBS' fall telecasts of "Thursday
Night Football." The song was supposed to be part of the opening video
for the weekly show in much the same way that a Carrie Underwood
performance kicks off NBC's "Sunday Night Football."
But CBS scrapped the opening video last week
in light of its news coverage of the Ray Rice scandal that has engulfed
the NFL. Holding off on the video gave CBS more time for somber
discussion of domestic violence and the league's treatment of it.
Rihanna, who was a
victim of domestic violence during a 2009 incident with then-boyfriend
and fellow music star Chris Brown, indicated in her tweets that she felt
the network was punishing her.
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