Report: CBS drops Rihanna song from Thursday's pregame show in wake of Ray Rice saga

With the Ray Rice saga dominating the national spotlight, CBS has dropped the opening to tonight's pregame show in Baltimore, which had been slated to feature a song by Rihanna, according to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

According to the report, CBS Sports officials elected to change the format for the "Thursday Night Football" pregame show as a result of "all the news over the last 72 hours."

They will instead open with "CBS This Morning" anchor Norah O'Donnell, who interviewed league commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday.

The network has also pulled an opener featuring actor Don Cheadle narrating over Rihanna's "Run This Town." A comedic segment has also been pulled.

“It’s important to realize we are not overreacting to this story but it is as big a story as has faced the NFL,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told SI.com. “We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage. A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.”

An extended interview pregame host James Brown conducted with Steve Bisciotti will air as scheduled.

Asked if he felt any pressure to make the move, McManus said, "Zero."

When asked if anyone from the league office had contacted the network to steer the direction of the pregame show, McManus had this to say:

Absolutely 100 percent no and if you listened to the questions asked by Norah O’Donnell, that is indicative of our position with respect to asking the hard questions and reporting the story.