White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Spicer Regrets Arguing With Reporters Over Inauguration Crowd Size

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James Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer regrets berating journalists during his first White House press briefing in January.  During this session, Spicer had aggressively asserted the inauguration crowd size was the largest ever.

“Of course I do, absolutely,” Spicer admitted during an interview Monday with the New York Times.

During the first official appearance in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Spicer announced that “[t]his was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.  Both in person and around the globe.”

Photos and videos of the inauguration showed fewer people gathered on the National Mall than for former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.  Additionally, Nielsen data suggests the television audience for the Trump inauguration fell below numbers for both Presidents Reagan and Obama.

Spicer made a surprise guest appearance at the Emmys on Sunday to make fun of this notable first briefing.  Appearing at the end of Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue, the former press secretary emerged on stage pushing a mobile podium similar to one used by Melissa McCarthy in a popular Saturday Night Live skit.

“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period.  Both in-person and around the world,” Spicer responded to Colbert.

“This was an attempt to poke a little fun at myself and add a little bit of levity to the event,” Spicer explained during in his interview with the New York Times.

Comedy Central Extends Trevor Noah’s Contract Through 2022

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Photo courtesy Comedy Central.

Earlier today, Comedy Central and Trevor Noah announced that they have agreed to a contract extension to keep the popular comedian and television host behind the late night desk on the Emmy-winning smash The Daily Show with Trevor Noah through 2022.

President of Comedy Central Kent Alterman celebrated the announcement stating, “Trevor makes us look smart on a daily basis, and for that we’re grateful.”

Similarly, Trevor Noah expressed his gratitude to the network and his fans for helping bring another five years of his late-night show to the airwaves.

“I’m thrilled to be continuing this amazing journey with both fans of The Daily Show and Comedy Central.  It’s really exciting to renew this contract for either five more years or until Kim Jong Un annihilates us all – whichever one comes first.”

Under the contract extension, Noah will remain as host at The Daily Show through 2022, in addition to his roles of writer and executive producer.  He will also host and produce year-end specials for the network beginning in December 2017.

Noah has found outstanding success since joining the network in 2015, especially among millennial and Generation X viewers.  In the third quarter of 2017, The Daily Show increased its viewer share among millenials an astounding 28% compared to last year, more than triple the growth of any other late night talk show.

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs on Comedy Central Monday through Thursday at 11:00 PM EST and is available to stream the following day on thedailyshow.com and via the Comedy Central mobile app.

“The Daily Show’s Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library” to Open This Friday

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Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has announced the grand opening of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library with a grand opening this Friday in New York City.  The library will remain open to the public through the weekend.

Announced by host Trevor Noah in March, the library “will feature visual installations and a fully interactive experience for hands of all sizes, giving patrons the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to memorialize and celebrate the many “unprecedented” moments of President Trump’s Twitter history.”

Exhibits will include “Trump vs. Trump,” designed to “document President Trump’s unique ability to hold a variety of different opinions on the same subject.”  A video retrospective titled “Sad!” will “solemnly display a collection of people, places and things that the President has deemed ‘SAD!’”

According to The Daily Show,

“The library will be so tremendous that the public is going to get tired of the tremendousness.”

The library will be located within a two-minute walk of Trump Tower in New York City on West 57th Street.  It will be free and open to the public from 11AM to 7PM Friday, June 16 through Sunday, June 18.

Lawrence O’Donnell Signs New Contract with MSNBC

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Photo courtesy Jeff Maurone via Wikimedia Commons.

After weeks of uncertainty, Lawrence O’Donnell has renewed his contract with MSNBC. His current contract is set to expire on Sunday.

“The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” airs at 10PM EST on the cable news network. The show has been receiving a boost in the ratings of late, ranking as the third most watched cable news program overall, falling behind only MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

The former “West Wing” producer announced on Twitter Thursday that he will be on MSNBC “for the foreseeable future.”

Terms of the contract have not currently been disclosed

Samantha Bee’s White House Correspondent Dinner Weekend Comedy Special to be Broadcast on Twitter

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay / Edar.

TBS “Full Frontal” Host Samantha Bee will host a red carpet roast of President Trump the night of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at D.A.R. Constitution Hall.  Today, she announced the entire event will be broadcast unedited and uncensored on Twitter.

“The teens who run our social media accounts said we should do this, and honestly, I was about three margaritas in at the time, so I guess it’s happening,” Bee stated in a release.

Bee also recently announced legendary musician and songwriter Elvis Costello and his band The Imposters will perform at the after-party held at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The special will also air on TBS April 29th and 10 PM EST.  Proceeds from the event will go to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Obama’s “Anger Translator” Keegan-Michael Key to Attend Samantha Bee’s Correspondents’ Dinner Weekend Comedy Special

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President Barack Obama delivers remarks with the help of comedic actor Keegan-Michael Key during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., April 25, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Keegan-Michael Key of “Key & Peele” fame has signed on to attend Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” event to be held on Saturday, April 29 at the D.A.R. Constitution Hall.

Key has a famous history with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend, having portrayed his popular character “President Obama’s ‘Anger Translator’ Luther” alongside Obama during the President’s 2015 Dinner remarks.

Watch the clip below:

Other celebrities expected at Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” include Kal Penn of Designated Survivor, Gloria Steinem, Matt Walsh of Veep, and Padma Lakshimi from Top Chef.  Legendary singer and songwriter Elvis Costello and his band The Imposters are scheduled to perform at the after-party held at the W Hotel in Washington.

Elvis Costello Joins Samantha Bee’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Weekend Comedy Special

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Elvis Costello performing in 2006. Photo by Victor Diaz Lamich provided courtesy Wikipedia.

Legendary musician and songwriter Elvis Costello, known for smash hits “Allison” and “Veronica”, will be performing with his band The Imposters at the after-party following Samantha Bee’s “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” comedy special.

Bee’s event is scheduled to take place at D.A.R. Constitution Hall a few hours before the April 29th annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. She has said her event is not an attempt to “supersede” the annual Correspondents’ Association dinner, but rather an attempt to celebrate the importance of a free press.

“We just want to be there in case something happens – or doesn’t happen. And ensure we get to properly roast the president,” Bee told the New York Times in January.

Proceeds for Bee’s event will benefit Committee to Protect Journalists, according to organizers. The show will be broadcast on TBS April 29th at 10PM EST.

Who Will Headline the Correspondents Dinner?

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Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Over the weekend, Late Night host Stephen Colbert suggested he would “love” to again headline the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. “I’d love to do it. I mean, when else are you going to stand next to the President and make jokes? But no one will ever ask again.”

Past hosts include Larry Wilmore, Rich Little, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel. Jay Leno currently holds the record for emceeing the event four times: 1987, 2000, 2004 and 2010.

The challenge for this year’s host will be balancing his or her role as entertainment with a presidential administration constantly criticizing the media. Dave Berg, producer of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” summed it up:

“In the past, the big challenge for comedians was, ‘How could I be funnier than President Obama? In most years, his comedy trumped the comedians. This year goes way beyond that. On the one hand, you could be accused of sitting there and skewering Trump and he is captive [at the dinner]. On the other hand, you could be accused of being too soft.”

Director Patrick Gavin, who produced the 2015 documentary Nerd Prom: Inside Washington’s Wildest Week, said this should be a tough decision for any comedian. “If they’re too tough on Trump, they run the risk of violating the ‘singe, but not burn’ principle that guides the dinner… And if they’re too soft… they will suffer the wrath of half of the country that view taking it to Trump as nothing short of a civic requirement.”

Jeff Mason of Reuters, in his role as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, oversees choosing the entertainer. He said recently he has no timeframe currently on when someone will be announced.

President Trump has not yet accepted an invitation to attend the Dinner. The last president to miss was Ronald Reagan in 1981 as he recovered from an assassination attempt.

Stephen Colbert Offers to Host White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Over the weekend, Late Night host Stephen Colbert said he would be interested in hosting this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April.

“I’d love to do it,” Colbert said at an 80’s dance party fundraiser for the Montclair Film Festival. “I mean, when else are you going to stand next to the President and make jokes?”

Colbert was the host of the Dinner in 2006, where he roasted then-President George W. Bush. “Everyone who wasn’t in that room loved [the speech],” he reminisced.

The late-night talk show host also discussed how difficult it has been to keep up with current events as host of Late Night since the Inauguration.

“The speed at which the news changes with President Trump is extraordinary,” Colbert said. “We tape the show at 5:30 p.m., but sometimes we have to change the show at 5 p.m. — after rehearsal, when everything is done — we are writing a whole new first act based around something that he has said or done in the last half hour. The balls are coming over the plate so fast with him and I think that’s intentional. [The Trump administration] want[s] their actions to be almost un-discussable. They want to swamp the real media.”

Jeff Mason of Reuters, in his role as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, oversees choosing the entertainer. He said recently he has no timeframe currently on when someone will be announced.

Samantha Bee to Host Trump Roast Same Night as White House Correspondents Dinner

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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.