(Image Source: NY Daily News)

The Emmys haven’t started, but the drama is already in full swing. 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has announced he will be dropping out of the broadcast after Fox cut a joke he was partial to. Here’s Deadline Hollywood:

“The opening video for tonight’s Primetime Emmy Awards on News Corp-owned Fox was supposed to feature 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin... But after a joke about News Corp topper Rupert Murdoch and the ongoing UK phone-hacking scandal involving his media empire was cut from the pretaped bit, Baldwin pulled out.”

The joke features Baldwin playing a TV executive on the phone, and he calls out Rupert Murdoch’s name, saying he can hear him listening in. When Fox asked to pull that particular punchline, Baldwin said he would prefer to drop the whole thing.

New York Daily News interviews a friend close to Baldwin who explained his rationale.

“He didn’t want to do something that had been edited afterwards because if it’s comedy and you take out a key line it just doesn’t work.”

After Baldwin pulled out, the bit was re-taped with Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy. But Baldwin took to Twitter to voice his disappointment with the edit, adding that Fox could have left it in for PR’s sake.

“Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little.”

But Fox is insisting that the joke was in poor taste, assuring Entertainment Weekly the decision was made by the network, not Murdoch-owned parent corporation NewsCorp.

“...the network was very clear that the decision to cut the joke was made at the Fox level — not by anyone at News Corp. Fox also claims that the reason the joke was cut was not because of Murdoch’s name, but because it was in poor taste to make light of the serious allegations surrounding the phone-hacking scandal.”

Baldwin is nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. The Emmys air Sunday night.