Dancing With The Stars' Alfonso Ribeiro And Derek Hough Relive The Night Protesters Rushed The Stage During A Live Broadcast — Watch

By Kimberly Roots
Dancing With the Stars Alfonso Ribeiro Derek Hough Protesters Ryan Lochte Courtesy of Disney/Jai Lennard; Disney/Eric McCandless

It's been nearly a decade since protesters interrupted a live broadcast of Dancing With the Stars, throwing the ballroom into chaos and bringing the telecast to a halt. But the evening remains fresh in the minds of host Alfonso Ribeiro and judge Derek Hough, both of whom witnessed it live.

During Tuesday's TVLine Spotlight conversation in New York City, I asked Ribeiro, Hough, judge Bruno Tonioli and host Julianne Hough to look back on the 20 years since their show premiered and tell us about the moments that live, rent-free, in their minds.

"I actually have a good one," Ribeiro said, as you can see in the video below. "It's when Ryan Lochte was on the show, and I was actually sitting in the audience and the two people came out of the audience to do something."

That "something" took place in 2016 when two men — Sam Sotoodeh and Barzeen Soroudi — rushed the stage and headed toward Lochte, an Olympic gold medalist who was competing as a dancer in Season 23. Earlier that year, during the Olympic games in Rio, Lochte claimed that he and three other swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint in Brazil. What he left out was that they'd vandalized a gas station and were confronted by a security guard to pay for the damages. Weeks later, in an interview with then-Today host Matt Lauer, Lochte admitted he was intoxicated at the time and said he was remorseful for what happened after. "If I didn't over-exaggerate the story... none of this would have happened," he said at the time. "We wouldn't be sitting her discussing this. I left certain things out. That's why I'm in this mess."

Sotoodeh and Soroudi were charged with misdemeanor trespassing; they, and other anti-Lochte demonstrators, were escorted from the event. "He embarrassed Americans on a world stage, and this was our form of protest against that," Soroudi later told ABC News.

Ribeiro recalled leaping into action when he saw Soroudi and Sotoodeh step onto the parquet. "Because my dad was a policeman, my natural instinct is to go toward danger," he said, popping out of his seat on the panel as he reenacted how he'd been ready to serve... until "our security guard just tackled them and slammed them to the ground. And I was like, 'I'm good! I'll sit back down.'"

Derek Hough was a pro that season (partnered with Marilu Henner); Julianne Hough was a judge. Derek Hough told the TVLine Spotlight audience that, in retrospect, it's funny to see him yelling at the men and their fellow protesters while wearing his performance attire. "I'm in a ruffled shirt and rhinestones," he said, laughing. "Super intimidating."

The new season of Dancing With the Stars — Season 34! — will get underway on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 8/7c. See the full list of competitors and their partners, press PLAY on the video above to watch Ribeiro and Derek Hough wax nostalgic about that unexpected dancefloor interlude, then check out the full behind-the-scenes conversation in the video below.

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