Carlson, Lemon exits mean whole new script for correspondents’ dinner headliner

White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner headliner Roy Wood Jr. says he’ll need to “throw out the whole damn script” after the dramatic exits of cable news stars Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon from their respective networks.

The comedian and “Daily Show” correspondent quipped Monday that he’d likely have to rework his material ahead of Saturday’s dinner in Washington, given the shocking pair of departures. Wood was announced as the headliner for the much-buzzed-about soirée in February. 

Fox News announced Monday that it was “parting ways” with Carlson, its top-rated prime-time host. Less than an hour later, Don Lemon said he had been fired by CNN after a 17-year career there.

“Pretty sure [Wood] is updating his remarks/roast for the White House Correspondents’ dinner this coming Saturday,” MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan wrote on Twitter shortly after the news broke that Carlson and Lemon were both on their way out.

“’Updating?’ Man I gotta throw out the whole damn script,” Wood replied. 

In an interview with ITK before the Carlson and Lemon media moves, Wood opened up about throwing out WHCA dinner jokes as he prepped for the event in order to keep up with the breakneck speed of the news cycle.

“That’s the hard part. I mean, if you’d asked me three weeks ago what I was going to open with, I had a couple of lines about Chinese spy balloons. I don’t even think anyone remembers that that ever happened,” Wood said.

“So you have to kind of ride the wave of what is trending and that’s what makes this dinner so difficult as well,” the comic added.

“I think that’s where a lot of comedians have to really buckle down and prepare for it — you’re cooking stuff fresh, essentially, the week-of,” Wood told ITK.