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Ferguson Riots Won’t Preempt ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ TV Stations Promise Anxious Viewers

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 10:39 PST, Nov 25, 2014

The Ferguson riots may have caused millions of dollars in damage, torn a community apart and played out the national tragedy of America’s broken race relations in front of a horrified worldwide audience — but at least they didn’t preempt Dancing With The Stars.

At least, that’s the message sent out by an ABC Network TV affiliate station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at about 9:15 Monday night, almost exactly the moment when St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCullough was taking the podium for a lengthy announcement in which he revealed that a grand jury had failed to bring charges against police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

While the failure to indict Wilson was universally expected, accompanied by the anticipation of street rioting that would — and did — inevitably follow, WTVC in Chattanooga comforted worried viewers with a Twitter posting, promising that no matter what, they wouldn’t miss the latest installment of the celebrity dance competition, in which they would find out if 43-year old former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Alfonso Ribeiro would continue to wow judges as he cut a rug with professional dance partner Witney Carson.

In a tweet that the station later deleted, but was — as usual — preserved for posterity in screen captures across the internet, WTVC told viewers, “Don’t worry, Dancing With The Stars will be back on after the special report.”

The station finished the tweet with the #Ferguson hashtag.

Viewers, or at least Twitter users who saw the station’s tweet, were quick to respond and, in general, were less than thrilled that Dancing With The Stars appeared to take priority over the grand jury decision and subsequent urban unrest in Ferguson.

The station seemed to go into panic mode, issuing a string of contrite follow-up Twitter postings.

But the Chattanooga station was not the only one to make sure that viewers knew they would receive their full dose of Dancing With The Stars, Ferguson or no Ferguson. The Durham, North Carolina, ABC affiliate also made sure its viewers knew they weren’t going to miss any of Alfonso Ribeiro’s dance moves.

In fact, some viewers reported that the Ferguson announcement on some ABC affiliates was cut short so that stations could return to their broadcast of Dancing With The Stars.

For those who missed Dancing With The Stars due to Ferguson riots coverage, Ribeiro and Carson scored a perfect 40 and advanced to Tuesday’s finale.

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