It's that time of year again: the 2024 White House Correspondents Dinner returns tonight, April 27, where several thousand journalists, celebrities and politicians —including POTUS himself Joe Biden—will congregate at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.
The annual WHCA dinner has been a tradition dating back to Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s; the event raises money to support journalists who cover the president, hold events and programs to educate the public about the value of a free press, and funds scholarships for the next generation of journalists. Every American president has attended at least one WHCA dinner, save for former President Donald Trump, though he previously attended the dinner in 2011 as a private citizen.
This year's edition will feature Saturday Night Live cast member and "Weekend Update" co-host Colin Jost as the dinner's featured entertainer; he follows in the funny footsteps of famed comics like Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien, Keegan-Michael Key and Trevor Noah.
“Colin Jost knows how to make Saturday nights funny, and I am thrilled Colin will be live from the nation’s capital as the headline entertainer for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, previously said in a statement. “His sharp insights perfectly meet this remarkable time of divided politics, and a presidential campaign careening toward a rematch."
Along with Colin Jost—and, likely, his very famous wife Scarlett Johansson—and President Biden (this will be the POTUS's third White House Correspondents Dinner since taking office), this year's dinner will see such high-profile attendees as First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Hollywood stars like The Holdovers' Oscar winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Jon Hamm, Keri Russell, Molly Ringwald, Rosario Dawson, Quavo and Rachel Brosnahan will reportedly also be in attendance during tonight's festivities.
To tune into the 2024 White House Correspondents Dinner on TV, you're going to need access to C-SPAN, which has covered the dinner since 1988. The red-carpet arrivals start at 6pm Eastern and can be streamed live online at C-SPAN.org and the C-SPAN Now App. (Note that, outside of the official C-SPAN app, there isn't any current way to watch C-SPAN live without a cable plan.) The dinner will also be livestreamed on C-SPAN’s YouTube at 8 pm ET, which can be found below.