Hansen Says Primetime Misrepresents His Experience

The film Primetime, a dramatization of the history of To Catch a Predator, is drawing public criticism from the television program’s former host, Chris Hansen, who says he was not consulted and that the movie departs sharply from his experience. The film opened in theaters on September 25, while Hansen has released a trailer for a separate documentary about his life and career; no release date has been announced for that project. In a video posted after watching Primetime, Hansen said almost every scene did not happen as depicted and described the film as detached from reality. He called it a hit piece on him and the series and said he did not understand its purpose. Those are Hansen’s assessments; the available accounts do not include a scene-by-scene comparison or a response from the filmmakers resolving the dispute. Primetime stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen and is directed by Lance Oppenheim. It dramatizes the making of To Catch a Predator, the NBC program that featured undercover operations in which adults who believed they were communicating with minors were confronted on camera.