Chris Hansen, To Catch a Predator and the True Story Behind Primetime

Robert Pattinson Addresses Chris Hansen’s Criticism Over Playing Him in ‘Primetime’

Content warning: This story discusses suicide.

Once upon a time, To Catch a Predator was must-see cringe TV.

Millions of people tuned in to watch a series of unwitting men arrive at a nondescript house in the suburbs for what they thought was going to be a sexual encounter with an underage boy or girl, only to find themselves confronted by host Chris Hansen and some stomach-turning chat logs.

"If you haven't seen it," Jimmy Kimmel quipped on his late night show in 2007, "it's like Punk'd for pedophiles."

But while the Dateline NBC segment became a much-parodied cultural touchstone, the ethics of the ruse that was central to the show's popularity remain up for debate.

And, as recounted in the 2007 Esquire article "Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die"—which inspired the new film Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as the telegenic Hansen—the ruse went disturbingly awry in November 2006, when Texas prosecutor Bill Conradt died by suicide as police showed up at his home to arrest him while the cameras were rolling.

In the film, Conradt's death occurs as the show's ostensible mission is being surpassed by the quest to produce compelling television—and beat ABC's Lost in the ratings.

Hansen, meanwhile, has stressed that he was not involved in the making of Primetime, telling the Los Angeles Times that he left a screening at A24's Manhattan office rather than sign a nondisclosure agreement. (A person involved with the film not authorized to discuss the matter told the publication it was a standard NDA to prevent viewers from revealing plot points and spoilers.)

Instead, he purchased ads for his true crime streaming network TruBlu to run in theaters, where the film is now playing.

But the 67-year-old—who has since shared his plan to go see the movie with a camera crew in tow to shoot content for one of his podcasts—conceded to Entertainment Tonight that, from what he saw in the trailer, Pattinson did "a pretty good imitation."

Still, Hansen added, “He’s saying things I never said and doing things I never did, and that’s not who I am. I’m a nice guy, except when it comes to criminals and predators. I think people should remember that it is a work of fiction, only based on real-life events.”

Primetime doesn't purport to be a docudrama, with director Lance Oppenheim explaining in the press notes that he "liked the idea of mixing truth and fictionization together," as To Catch a Predator "blended artifice—actors, fake houses—with very real stakes."

He continued, "You’d watch someone’s life effectively end on television while a short adult actor playing a child hovered in the background. It felt like a circus, with Chris as the ringleader."

The lion got out of the cage on Nov. 5, 2006, when police arrived at the Terrell, Texas, home of Louis “Bill” Conradt Jr.—an assistant district attorney for Rockland County—to arrest him on charges of soliciting sex with a minor and he fatally shot himself before officers forced their way inside.

Conradt's sister Patricia Conradt subsequently sued NBC for $105 million, alleging in the lawsuit, per the AP, that NBC "steamrolled" police to arrest her brother, as well as "trespassed and invaded upon Bill’s property" to “broadcast a spectacle to millions.”

Though a network spokeswoman called the suit "completely without merit," the two sides reached an undisclosed settlement in 2008, saying in a joint statement that "the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties."

Primetime director Oppenheimer recalled being "haunted" by the segment and sought to capture in the film "the feeling of being inside the apparatus as things spiraled out of control.”

Twenty years later, Hansen maintains that NBC "didn't have a role" in the decision to go to Conradt's house. "The police decided to do it," he told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview, "and we covered it like any other arrest we would cover in the course of reporting the story."

As for the assumption that the Conradt scandal hastened TCAP's cancellation in early 2008, Hanson saw it differently, telling TIME in 2015 that the show just ran its course.

“I think we raised awareness and created a dialogue that didn’t exist before,” he said. “We created compelling television, and I think we exposed a lot of bad people who were preying on children."

Hansen and NBC News parted ways in 2013 but he's yet to retire from true crime. His TruBlu series, Takedown With Chris Hansen, resembles the To Catch a Predator format, and he hosts the podcasts Have a Seat with Chris Hansen and Predators I've Caught—all content Pattinson devoured in coming up with his portrayal.

And it's a performance he hopes Hansen likes. "There’s something electrifying about him," the actor told reporters at the Venice Film Festival. "I would hope the amount of inspiration his character has given a lot of people for years is some kind of compliment."

See more stars who took on the task of playing a real person in films and TV: