White House Correspondents' Dinner Live Stream: Where, When, How To Watch

The time has come for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a century-old tradition sometimes known as the “nerd prom.” While the industry’s leading journalists will be in attendance, conspicuously absent will be President Donald Trump, who planned to skip the event.

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was set to be held at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., Saturday at 9:30 p.m. EDT. The event can be live streamed from C-SPAN here.

Trump never gave a reason for his lack of attendance, though many speculated it was a result of his tenuous relationship with the media, an industry the president has often denounced. Trump will be the first president since Ronald Reagan, who was recovering from an assassination attempt at the time, not to attend the event.

“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” the president tweeted in February.

Additional White House staffers planned to skip the event in solidarity with the president.

Hasan Minhaj, senior correspondent for the Daily Show, was scheduled to host the event. Minhaj, a Muslim and proponent of immigrant rights, has a history of poking fun at Trump during his time on television.

Many celebrities, normally staples at the event, planned to skip the event this year. In response to Trump’s bashing of the media, Vanity Fair and Bloomberg planned to cancel their after party, while the New Yorker canceled its pre-party.

This year’s dinner aimed to emphasize funding scholarships for up and coming journalists and focusing on the accomplishments of those covering the presidency.

The event was set to be a more serious one than the joke-fueled dinners of the years past, according to reports.

“We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession,” Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondent’s Association, said in a statement.