We knew that Ryan Lochte was a bit of a controversial casting on Dancing with the Stars following the events that occurred at the Rio Olympics, but we didn't realize how crazy things could get. At least, we didn't realize how crazy things could get until people began verbally attacking the Olympian and interrupting the judges, not to mention attempting to crash the live series broadcast during last night's Season 23 premiere. Now, it looks like the two men who crashed the ballroom floor were arrested for their efforts. Here's what we know.
If you caught last night's incredibly epic live TV broadcast, you should know there were several people in the audience who started with anti-Ryan Lochte chants after the broadcast. The two men who stormed the stage and were later caught by cameras were revealed to be 48-year-old Sam Sododeh and 40-year-old Barzeen Soroudi, who both live in Los Angeles. As early as last night, we had footage of the two men wearing anti-Lochte t-shirts and sitting quietly with their hands tied behind their backs.
ABC 7 later tracked the men as police took them into custody. The were booked in Los Angeles for trespassing. LA police stated that the two men had legitimate tickets to the taping before their outburst. You would think someone would have noticed that anti-Lochte t-shirts, but the LAPD also says they hid them under their shirts before the Olympic swimmer appeared on the DWTS stage.
During the taping, Dancing with the Stars had to take an early commercial break to handle the incident. When the show returned, Tom Bergeron made the following, succinct comment:
We had to go to break because we had a little incident.
By incident, he really meant two men were arrested and an additional, 4-5 individuals had to be forcibly removed from the taping. Actual footage from last night's episode is available to view, as well.
The live TV stunt was really pretty crazy. A lot of people had opinions after Ryan Lochte announced he had been robbed in Rio and the Rio police found holes in the story he and a few other Olympians were spouting. However, just the idea that all of these people came together in a room and decided to protest Ryan Lochte's right to appear on a reality TV series is pretty absurd. They made t-shirts. Two of them got arrested, actually arrested. I mean you look back to individuals getting arrested for protesting in the Civil Rights movement and you know exactly where those people were coming from. However, this Ryan Lochte protest is totally ludicrous in comparison.
I can't wait to see how the rest of Dancing with the Stars Season 23 shakes out. You can catch new episodes of the long-running reality series on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET, only on ABC. To find out when the rest of your favorite shows are returning, head here.
