On September 25, A24 will release Primetime, a film loosely based on the production and eventual cancellation of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator. Starring Robert Pattinson (Twilight, Tenet, The Batman, The Odyssey) as Chris Hansen and directed by Lance Oppenheim (in his feature film debut), the film has received rave reviews from critics, scoring a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Even if you've never sat down and watched an entire episode of To Catch a Predator, you're probably familiar with its format and premise thanks to the memes, numerous parodies, and copycats that have sprung up in the years since its cancellation. There's a perverse entertainment in watching potential predators get humiliated on national television. And because it thrived off cringe and awkwardness, the show has aged remarkably well. Ironically, it fits today’s cultural sensibilities better than yesterday's.
How did To Catch a Predator start, and why did it get canceled? What is Chris Hansen doing these days, and what does he have to say about the upcoming film? Here is everything you need to know about the history behind Primetime, which is scheduled to open in theaters on September 25, 2026.
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“I’m Chris Hansen”
One of the most recognizable, most impersonated news reporters of the past two decades, Chris Hansen is the original host of To Catch a Predator, which began airing in 2004. But prior to that, Hansen was an acclaimed news correspondent for Dateline NBC. In that capacity, he won eight Emmys and four Edward R. Murrow Awards for his investigative reporting on issues ranging from 9/11 to airport security to child slave labor.
The premise
To Catch A Predator was billed as a "A Dateline Presentation," which lent the program some respectability. The premise was simple and curiosity-provoking: A decoy, posing as an underage boy or girl, would wait in an online chat room for an adult to message him or her. After a sexually charged conversation, typically initiated by the adult, the decoy would agree to meet at an address to have sex.
When the adult showed up at the location (rigged with hidden cameras), Chris Hansen and the NBC production crew would surprise them and ask what they were doing there.
How many people would get caught in the sting? And what would they say after being confronted?
The First Sting
NBC filmed the first sting in Bethpage, NY, on Long Island. Hansen was originally unsure of how successful the premise would be. But over the course of two and a half days, 18 men showed up at the house looking for sex. This included a New York City firefighter, who was later fired.
Hansen conducted the first sting without the direct involvement of law enforcement, which would change in subsequent investigations. The Bethpage episode also framed the sting as part of a larger focus to keep children safe on the Internet, and included interviews with children and parents. Future episodes focused almost exclusively on the sting operation itself.
Peverted Justice
Dateline partnered with Perverted Justice on all of these stings. Perverted Justice was an online watchdog organization that dedicated itself to exposing predators. The organization consisted largely of volunteers, who would pose in chat rooms as underage boys and girls and engage in sexual discussions with adults. Then, they would post the chat logs online and call the person's loved ones and employees. They also made evidence available to any police department who wanted to take up an investigation.
They'd done in-person stings before, including with a local news outlet. But the NBC partnership enabled the organization to take their efforts to the next level, with hidden cameras and upgraded technology.
Establishing the Tropes
NBC and Perverted Justice conducted 12 sting operations across the United States over a period of four years. The show, which began as an experimental 'what-if' scenario, had become a ratings juggernaut.
It eventually settled into a reliable formula. A high-pitched-voiced actress pretended to be the girl in person and encouraged the man to come into the house. The cops, who would run a concurrent investigation, waited outside the sting house. When Hansen finished interviewing the men, the cops arrested the men and jailed them for online solicitation. Occasionally, the men got tackled or tased. Prison would follow.
The predators reacted in odd, unforeseen ways to their predicament. Sometimes, they broke down crying. Sometimes, they attempted to attack Hansen or negotiate for the footage. One time, a man fainted.
Memes
Hansen coined a number of catchphrases during his interviews, which have persisted to the present day. He'd greet the suspects by saying, "Why don't you have a seat over there?" He spent a large part of the interviews reading the explicit chat logs back to the suspects in a dry, clinical tone. Hansen's nasal, vocal fry voice became his most imitated characteristic on late-night talk shows and YouTube parodies.
At the end of the interview, Hansen would tell the suspect, "There's something you need to know. I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, and we're doing a story on computer predators." That would be the cue for the NBC camera crew to come out of hiding and surround the suspect, shaming him further.
Entrapment and Overstepping Bounds
The show was initially praised for shining a mainstream spotlight on a real problem. But as the show gained popularity, the close partnerships between NBC and local police departments stirred controversy. There is a difference between reporting the news and actively making the news, and critics believed that NBC crossed that line into entrapment. Who initiated these conversations between the decoys and these men? Which party was the first to bring up sex?
The Other Side
The show's defenders countered these criticisms by saying they're a form of victim blaming—that even if the decoy initiated these conversations, it doesn't make what these men did okay. Defenders also claim that Perverted Justice and NBC always followed proper protocol—that they neither initiated the conversations nor broached the topic of sex. But Dateline anchor Stone Phillips wrote an editorial that contradicts that claim. In the same editorial, he also says that To Catch A Predator did not entrap the men; it "enticed" them.
The law saw it differently. In the Murphy, Texas sting, the prosecutors dropped the charges against all 24 men arrested due to unreliable evidence. The intertwining of media and law enforcement also tainted the cases and made them unprosecutable.
But Did It Help?
Despite the botched Texas operation, NBC states that the show's investigations led to 200 indictments and 120 convictions for sex crimes. It definitely got some bad guys off the streets and onto sex offender registries.
But did it solve the larger problem of adults seeking out children online for sex? It spread awareness of the problem, to be sure. But it may also have educated potential online predators on police decoy tactics and shown them how to be better, more discreet creeps.
Suicide and Fallout
The Texas investigation also resulted in the suicide of a suspected predator. Bill Conradt—an assistant district attorney—had a sexually charged conversation with a decoy claiming to be a 13-year-old boy. When Conradt didn't show up at the sting house, Dateline took an unprecedented step and decided to travel to his home and confront him. Conradt shot himself after the SWAT team broke down the door.
The show and the police received numerous criticisms for their handling of the incident—for rushing the search and arrest warrants without interdepartmental oversight, for favoring spectacle and TV showmanship over expediency, and for creating a situation in which a man, presumed innocent until proven guilty, killed himself before the facts were even clear. Conradt's family sued NBC for wrongful death, and the lawsuit was settled out of court.
Hansen, for his part, feels no remorse for the way events played out.
Cancellation
NBC canceled the show in 2007. Hansen claims that the show had simply run its course. But many observers felt that Conradt's suicide was a determining factor. Hansen continued reporting for NBC until 2013, when the network declined to renew his contract.
Copycats
In the years since To Catch a Predator, numerous Internet vigilantes have taken up the mantle left by the show. Unfortunately, many of them are exploitative and trollish in their approach, preferring to humiliate or torture the suspects rather than immediately call the police. This makes these cases impossible to prosecute; only a handful of Hansen's admirers do their due diligence.
Chris Hansen today
Today, Chris Hansen dedicates the majority of his professional career to catching predators. He debuted a spiritual successor to To Catch a Predator on Crime Watch Daily—called Hansen vs. Predator—in 2016. He co-founded TruBlu, a true crime streaming network, in 2020, and he now hosts a show on the network called Takedown with Chris Hansen. It follows the exact format of the original show.
Primetime Releases Its First Teaser
In May 2026, A24 released its teaser trailer for Primetime, based on the real-life production and cancellation of To Catch a Predator. The film, with its saturated, shadowy look, appeared reminiscent of David Fincher's The Social Network—another critical film about a '00s cultural phenomenon.
Who are the Filmmakers?
The director is Lance Oppenheim, who makes his feature directorial debut. The screenplay, written by Ajon Singh, is based on the 2007 Esquire article "Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die," by Luke Dittrich. It covers the Conradt suicide and the ethical issues surrounding it.
Robert Pattinson is Chris Hansen
Robert Pattinson plays the role of Chris Hansen. Pattinson worked particularly hard to make sure he nailed Hansen's distinctive voice. He hopes that Hansen enjoys the movie, remarking in a recent press conference:
Reaction from Venice
Primetime debuted in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. The audience gave it a nine-minute standing ovation.
Reaction from Chris Hansen
Hansen has been critical of the movie, which, based on what he's seen so far, appears to be fiction. He says he declined a private screening because the filmmakers wanted him to sign an NDA that would absolve them of any legal liability. Hansen has purchased TruBlu ads to play before every screening of the film, hoping to capitalize on the film's popularity.
He concedes that Pattinson nailed the voice.
