
The Willard Hotel. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Samantha Bee, host of TBS “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” is planning an roast of President Donald Trump in Washington April 29th titled “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
Scheduled to be held at the Willard Hotel, Ms. Bee and her colleagues stated her event is not designed to compete with the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner, to be held the same evening.
“We’re not trying to supersede it. We just want to be there in case something happens – or doesn’t happen – and ensure that we get to properly roast the president,” Bee said in a telephone interview with the New York Times.
The television host and comedienne said she and her producers got the idea for their event after November’s election. “We were talking out loud about whether we thought the White House Correspondents’ dinner would change during a Trump presidency, or if it would even exist. And then we thought: Why don’t we just do one, just to do it in the way that we would want it done if we were hosting it?”
Although the White House Correspondents Association has not yet announced the entertainment for April’s dinner, Bee said she did not expect to be asked. “My assumption is that that invitation is not coming, and I don’t blame them for that at all,” she said.
Bee’s roast will likely be broadcast on TBS, although she said the details were still under negotiation. Attending guests also were still being worked out. “We have binders full of people, but we don’t have any specifics to offer yet,” Ms. Bee said.
Proceeds from “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” will be donated to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
UPDATE: To see past WHCI coverage of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and related events, please click here.
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