A new film, Primetime, directed by Lance Oppenheim and starring Robert Pattinson, has been released in the US this week, with a UK release scheduled for October 30. The film explores how the network news show To Catch a Predator turned sting operations into popular television, raising ethical questions about justice and voyeurism.
Pattinson portrays journalist Chris Hansen, who famously confronted men suspected of soliciting sex with minors online. The real Chris Hansen, 67, has branded the movie an “insult” and “identity theft” without having seen it.
To Catch a Predator, which aired on Dateline NBC, targeted men believed to be soliciting sex with minors in online chat rooms. Volunteers from the citizen watchdog group Perverted Justice posed as underage children, arranging meetings at fake homes where men would be confronted on camera by Hansen.
The show averaged about 7 million viewers per episode by the 2006-07 season. However, the operation took a turn in 2006 when Bill Conradt, an assistant district attorney, allegedly contacted a decoy but then killed himself as a Swat team entered his home. This incident led to a lawsuit and journalistic investigations, and To Catch a Predator was cancelled by 2008.