30 Rock star Alec Baldwin won’t be at the Emmy Awards tonight after he walked out on the show after a joke about News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was cut from a segment he had recorded to open the broadcast.
Following a Deadline.com confirmation of his departure Baldwin tweeted:
“I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line.”
The Emmy awards air on the News Corp. owned Fox TV network and apparently they were not comfortable attacking their own boss, especially in regards to the phone-hacking scandal which has given News Corp. more negative publicity than they have seen in years.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with Fox representatives who said cutting the joke came at the Fox level and not from top brass at News Corp.
Throwing some spin of their own into the mix, Fox officials say they cut the joke because it makes fun of a situation that carries with it serious allegations.
The clip has now been completely scrapped and Leonard Nimoy stepped in for a 100% re-shoot which will open the show.
Baldwin tweeted of the joke being cut:
“Fox did kill my NewsCorp hacking joke. Which sucks bc I think it would have made them look better. A little.”
I personally don’t agree with the decision by Fox officials, after all it’s not as if the scandal is going to disappear all together if one more joke is told about Rupert Murdoch and his employees boneheaded decisions.
Remember when Fox use to put anything on the TV just to be rebellious and different, I yearn for the Married with Children days when Fox was actually cutting edge and daring.
Do you think Fox should have allowed the joke to remain?
