Finally, a crowd of people rooted for Ryan Lochte this summer.
The beleaguered Olympian won a standing ovation from the “Dancing with the Stars” audience Monday night after two anti-Lochte protesters stormed the stage, according to a “Good Morning America” report the next day.
“The mood in the room was definitely in Ryan’s corner after these guys were escorted out,” host Tom Bergeron told the “GMA” anchors.
Chaos reigned on the dance contest’s live season premiere as two men apparently incensed over Lochte’s boozy Rio antics last month walked onstage chanting “Liar, liar!” during judges’ critique of his foxtrot only to be promptly tackled and handcuffed by security.
The two men were charged by the LAPD with misdemeanor trespassing and later identified by ABC News as Barzeen Soroudi, 40, and Sam Sododeh, 48.
The pair had aptly displayed their distaste with white t-shirts bearing Lochte’s name beneath a red strikethrough circle. Per Bergeron, they’d “dressed appropriately for the show and then tore those away to reveal those t-shirts.”
Further footage from the network showed four or five additional protestors lurking in the gallery and sporting the same anti-Lochte shirts being booted out by Derek Hough.
“We have a very good security system here, there are metal detectors, bags are checked, etc.,” Bergeron told “GMA.” “But I think our security did a great job in not assuming that just because these people wanted to be vocally protesting that they might not get physical as well.”
WATCH: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Security takes down anti-@RyanLochte protesters who rushed the stage last night at #DWTS. https://t.co/LBf3JJ8qzu— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 13, 2016
The host also dispelled speculation that disruption had been a stunt staged by the show.
“Look, there are always skeptics about everything,” he said. “But look, it wasn’t a bit. It was really unnerving, and again, I applaud our security team for making it very short.”
Lochte, competing on the ABC primetime show alongside Amber Rose, Rick Perry, Vanilla Ice and “The Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick, is in the midst of winning back America’s heart after he was caught lying (or, as he tells it, “over-exaggerating”) about a gunpoint robbery in Rio.
He was later banned from swimming through next June.
The 32-year-old, visibly shaken from Monday’s fracas, vowed in a backstage interview with Entertainment Tonight to “keep moving forward.”
“Honestly, it felt like someone just reached inside, took my heart out and tore it to shreds,” he said. “I was really hurt when I saw that and I was in shock. But I looked at Cheryl and she just smiled and said, ‘You just did what you said you can’t do. You danced in front of millions.’ And I was like, ‘You’re right.’”
