Primetime, directed by Lance Oppenheim and released in the US this week with a UK release scheduled for 30 October, examines the cultural phenomenon of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator. The film stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, the journalist who confronted suspects in the network’s widely watched sting operations targeting men suspected of soliciting sex with minors through online chat rooms.
To Catch a Predator became a defining television hit during the mid-2000s ratings era, averaging approximately 7 million viewers per episode by the 2006-07 season. The program worked with the citizen watchdog group Perverted Justice to orchestrate elaborate stings in which decoys posed as underage children online, arranging in-person meetings at fake homes where actors playing teenagers would confront the suspects. Hansen would then appear on camera to interrogate the men while police prepared to make arrests. The show’s formula—featuring Hansen’s signature catchphrase “Have a seat”—made him a television star and raised complex questions about voyeurism, justice, and society’s relationship with public shaming.
The operation’s trajectory shifted in 2006 when Bill Conradt, an assistant district attorney in Texas, died by suicide as law enforcement entered his home during a sting operation, with television crew present outside. This incident prompted legal action and journalistic investigations that ultimately contributed to the show’s cancellation in 2008. Journalist Luke Dittrich’s 2007 Esquire article became a key source for the Primetime screenplay.
Parallel to the televised operations, state authorities in Kentucky had conducted their own sting campaigns. Then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo oversaw a series of state-led operations working alongside local officials and Perverted Justice, resulting in more than 20 arrests. Stumbo emphasized that the operations aimed to deter potential offenders, noting that suspects had no prior criminal records and included firefighters and teachers. The real Chris Hansen has publicly criticized the film as an “insult” without having viewed it.
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