ABC Censors Rihanna, Britney Spears Kiss at the Billboard Awards 2011

Sunday night was a big night for the music industry, as the Billboard Music Awards 2011 took place at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas. One of the most anticipated performances of the night was that of Rihanna and Britney Spears – but ABC would not take any chances with them.

As we also informed you yesterday, the two performed the much-hyped “S&M” remix, which they ended with a pillow fight – and a kiss that the network refused to air.

The video below shows the entire performance, up until the point Rihanna grabbed Britney and went in for a kiss, which was more of a peck on the cheek, as TooFab also points out.

Having already had its fair share of controversy, ABC chose not to take any chances with the two pop stars and cut from them precisely as Rihanna made the move towards Britney.

“What viewers didn’t see, however, was a quick smooch between the two pop stars at the end of the duet,” says TooFab.

“The kiss didn’t linger like Spears’ infamous kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, but ABC didn’t take any chances and quickly cut away to a shot of the audience,” the e-zine adds.

Luckily, fans of the two didn’t miss out on much, since photos of the kiss / peck on the cheek are available online – you can also see one attached to this article.

The duet with Rihanna wasn’t Britney’s only appearance on stage on the night in question, since she also made a cameo towards Nicki Minaj’s performance, singing a bit of her “Till the World Ends” single.

Though she did considerably better than she did, say, on Good Morning America back in March this year, Britney was still criticized for her two appearances at the Billboard Awards, as we also informed you yesterday.

For starters, while both Rihanna and Nicki sang live, Britney still lip-synched in a very obvious manner; secondly, her dancing could barely qualify as such.

Check out the duet with Rihanna for the “S&M” remix.