Primetime, a new film directed by Lance Oppenheim, arrives in US theaters this week before a planned 30 October release in the UK. The feature explores the complex history of Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator, a series that famously transformed sting operations into high-stakes reality television. Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen, the investigative journalist whose confrontations with men suspected of soliciting sex with minors became a defining image of the mid-2000s ratings wars. Raising a host of ethical questions about justice, voyeurism and society’s willingness to dehumanise certain offenders for profit and entertainment, it explores how a network news show turned sting operations into must-see television. Whose recent movies include The Batman, The Drama and The Odyssey, the swaggering Hansen is played by Robert Pattinson. The programme targeted men suspected of soliciting sex with minors in online chat rooms. Volunteers from the citizen watchdog group Perverted Justice posed as underage children, engaging adults in conversations and then arranging meetings at fake homes.
The film opens with a sequence featuring a man from Long Beach, California, who travels to a location believing he is meeting a 13-year-old girl. When Hansen confronts him on camera while law enforcement waits nearby to execute an arrest, the scene serves to illustrate the show’s central hook. In the movie, Pattinson delivers a pivotal line regarding the nature of the program: “There used to be a pillory in every village. Now, there’s a television in every living room.” There, decoy actors playing the supposed teenagers would be waiting. Ready to make arrests, the men would be confronted on camera by Hansen while police officers stood outside.
During its peak in the 2006-07 season, To Catch a Predator drew roughly 7 million viewers per episode, positioning itself as a major rival to ABC’s Lost. While the formula turned Hansen into a household name famous for his catchphrase, “Have a seat,” the real-life operations were not without controversy. In 2006, the operation in Rockwall County, Texas, faced scrutiny after assistant district attorney Bill Conradt, who had allegedly communicated with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old boy but withdrew, died during the police raid on his home after he failed to report to the sting house. He is caught, and it is the end of his life as he knew it. Hansen asks what his fate should be. “The electric chair?” he asks. The formula proved hugely successful.
The incident triggered legal action and a series of journalistic inquiries, including reports by ABC’s 20/20 and Esquire journalist Luke Dittrich. However, the use of sting operations to combat online solicitation existed before the Dateline NBC crew. In Kentucky, former attorney general Greg Stumbo managed state-led operations that partnered with local law enforcement, including Bowling Green sheriff Jerry “Peanuts” Gaines. Using female agents as online decoys, these operations targeted individuals from various professions, including firefighters and university teachers, who lacked prior criminal records.
Stumbo maintains that the methods were effective and rejects criticisms of entrapment, noting that he was never presented with such legal challenges. He argues that the severity of the offense left little room for sympathy regarding the men whose lives were dismantled by the sting. “I’m a prosecutor,” Stumbo stated. “I don’t find any excuse in that.”
Perverted Justice, an organization founded by Xavier Von Erck, acted as the primary architect behind the Dateline NBC sting houses. Von Erck claims that without his group’s logistical work—screening chat logs and enforcing safety boundaries—the show would have been impossible to produce at that time. He asserts that convictions linked to the evidence supplied by his team were never successfully overturned on appeal. Reflecting on the show’s legacy, David Osit, director of the 2025 documentary Predators, describes the original series as “sordid and creepy and amusing,” noting how it occupied a unique space of human discomfort.
Despite the historical impact of the program, the subjects involved are now sharply divided over their depiction in Oppenheim’s film. Von Erck has expressed significant hostility toward the movie, alleging that the production invented scenes and locations. He argues the film is not a true reflection of his work, but rather a “purposefully malicious portrayal.”
Chris Hansen, 67, has also been vocal in his opposition. While he has not seen the film, he publicly denounced the project as an act of “identity theft” and an “insult.” In an interview with USA Today, Hansen claimed the filmmakers sought to exploit the brand he cultivated over the course of his 45-year career. Despite these critiques, Osit suggests that Hansen’s defensive stance is characteristic of a savvy media personality. Osit noted that if the goal were truly to eliminate child predation, the investigations would have concluded, adding that the show exists as a product of human fascination rather than a lasting solution to the problem.
