The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, by the numbers
President Barack Obama, left, speaks during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2014. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
Like every other major event in Washington, the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner is the cumulative result of months of work by hundreds of people most Americans will never know.
Love the dinner or hate it — and there are plenty of reasons to feel the latter emotion — it’s not just the president’s one-liners that require effort. The expansive, star-studded meal for more than 2,600 guests at the Washington Hilton on Saturday is a labor of love for the behind-the-scenes pros whose job it is to make sure the event goes smoothly.
With the help of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), the Washington Hilton and C-SPAN, here’s a by-the-numbers look at what goes into the making of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
2,636: The number of guests who will dine inside the Hilton’s International Ballroom, according to the WHCA. Those guests will be seated at 262 tables of approximately 10 people each.
4,000: Unable to snag a ticket to the dinner itself? You’re not alone — but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to a pre-party. According to the Hilton, 4,000 people are scheduled to attend pre-parties at the hotel before the night’s official programming begins.
151: The number of outlets credentialed through the WHCA, according to the association.
47: The number of consecutive years since 1968 that the Washington Hilton has hosted the dinner.
700: The number of Hilton employees who will staff this year’s correspondents’ dinner. That number includes 200 banquet servers, 60 kitchen employees, 50 greeters for “guest assistance” and three team members “to assist guests with bow ties,” according to the hotel. No word on whether the bow-tie assistants are deployed to help hapless guests affix their clip-on or pre-tied neckwear.
1: One Hilton team member, banquet captain Charlie Ragusa, has served all 47 correspondents’ dinners held at the hotel.
4,400-plus: The cumulative number of dinners worked by the 220 current Hilton employees who have worked “at least” 20 WHCA dinners each, according to the hotel.
62.5 percent: The fraction of a regulation-size football field that would be covered by the 30,000-square-foot International Ballroom, home to the annual dinner. The kitchen that will be used to prepare food for the evening’s festivities is 23,000 square feet.
10: The number of minutes the Hilton says it takes for food at the dinner to get “from grill to guest,” despite the room’s mammoth size and population.
11: The number of WHCA dinners planned and executed by executive chef Andre Cote. The Hilton says his first day on the job was the night of the 2005 correspondents’ dinner — which certainly must have been trial by fire.
$96,550: The amount of scholarship money the WHCA approved to be given to 17 young aspiring journalists. The WHCA will distribute $89,550 of that amount because one of the institutions that receives the grant money, the University of Missouri, submitted only seven names for its 10 designated scholarship slots.
23: The number of WHCA dinners, including this year’s, that will have been broadcast live by C-SPAN, which began airing the program in 1993.
10: The number of C-SPAN employees who will work Saturday night to broadcast the dinner live.
9,962,555: The most views ever for a C-SPAN YouTube clip from the WHCA dinner — that of President Barack Obama’s 2011 comedy routine. That clip is tops for good reason: The following day, news broke that a Navy SEALs team had killed Osama bin Laden the Saturday of the event. The second-most-viewed C-SPAN WHCA clip, with more than 3.2 million views, is of comedian Seth Meyers’ routine the same year. C-SPAN’s complete WHCA dinner playlist can be found online.
1: A lone professional entertainer who has emceed the WHCA dinner has gone on to become a United States senator. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., hosted the event in both 1994 and 1996. (And bless the hearts of the C-SPAN captioning team for the tagline to that 1994 video, “Prior to the president’s speech, Al Franken made humorous remarks.”)
1: The number of WHCA performers to win an EGOT (Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony Hollywood grand slam). Barbara Streisand* performed at the 1963 dinner, hosted by Merv Griffin.
*Streisand’s Tony win was a noncompetitive one, and some pop culture obsessives question the merits of her EGOT mantle, even though she has won more awards, 18, than any other EGOT winner.
5: The number of solo female hosts, including 2015’s entertainer, “Saturday Night Live” cast member Cecily Strong. In 1992, comedian Paula Poundstone became the first solo female entertainer. She was followed by Elayne Boosler in 1993, Aretha Franklin in 1999 and Wanda Sykes in 2009.
3: The number of playoff games during the WHCA dinner weekend in which D.C.-area teams will compete. The Wizards, the capital’s professional basketball team, are playing two games at the Verizon Center, and the Capitals, D.C.’s hockey team, continue their play in the Stanley Cup playoffs — you know, in case #ThisTown dinners aren’t your bag.
Highlights from the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner:
