American Idol finalist Colton Dixon will attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner this Saturday as a special guest of the Christian Broadcasting Network, CBN news director Rob Allman announced Thursday.
The 20 year-old Tennessee native, who finished in seventh place and was eliminated from the competition last week, impressed CBN with his choice to ignore producers’ suggestions to refrain from expressing his spirituality on the show.
“It was pretty clear from the beginning where Colton’s heart is,” Allman shared. “We followed his time on Idol very closely. In March, we read how he continued to talk about his faith against the advice of the show’s producers and we at CBN felt compelled to report on his strong performance of a worship song at that time.
“Those events plus his ongoing character strengths made it clear that he would be a very appropriate guest of CBN at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
Joining Allman and Dixon at CBN’s table at this year’s dinner will be CBN White House correspondent Jennifer Wishon, CBN Bureau Chief Robin Mazyck and White House producer Dana Ritter.
Previous CBN guests have included Gov. Bob McDonnell, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, television personality Sherri Shepherd, Olympic Gold Medal speed skater Chad Hedrick, and previous American Idol finalists Mandisa and Chris Sligh.
