Sept. 28, 2026
‘To Catch A Predator’s’ Chris Hansen Is Pissed About ‘Primetime’
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RSS Feed “Primetime” came in a respectable number 4 over the weekend, and critics are singing its praises, earning an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the journalist the movie portrays, former NBC reporter Chris Hansen, is upset, saying the film is a “complete work of fiction.” Hansen goes on to say the movie is “detached from reality or anything I’ve ever experienced.” Hansen is played by actor Robert Pattinson and depicts his role working on “To Catch a Predator” back in 2006, when a potential target of the show, a Texas prosecutor died by suicide rather than be confronted by the reality show and police.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, September 28th, and Chris Hansen is pissed. He's pissed about how he's being depicted in the new blockbuster film, Prime Time, where it talks about the show to catch a predator. Problem is, some say Hansen is the one almost being depicted as a predator. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes Podcast. Hit show, a phenomenon, wasn't on that long. We still talk about it, but Robes, there was, if people don't remember, there always was an ethical debate about this show.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yes, because you are literally setting up people. And it's something you would see perhaps law enforcement do, setting up a sting operation.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: But instead, you've got camera crews ready to catch you in the act.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: And they actually hired an actor to depict a young child, someone who would lure a predator to them and then catch them before anything untoward happened. And so, yes, it was ethically questionable without a doubt, but it was entertaining and It was highly successful.
00:01:14
Speaker 3: People tuned in. They wanted to see.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: To the point, Robes, 20 now years after it's gone off, they're still making movies about it. And it's still stirring up debate. I'm not sure. I'm sure it's streaming somewhere. People can still watch To Catch a Predator. But, Robes, it was prime time, must-see, cringey television. And, Robes, I don't know where one would come down. You and I haven't had this discussion. This is a public film. A public shaming of someone before they have a chance to defend themselves, before all the circumstances are out there. Robes, you're getting put on camera, labeled a pedophile on prime time. That was the show.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: That was the show.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: And even though, Robes, if you think you're doing good, should it be entertainment? Even if you're doing good, getting possible dangerous folks off the street. See, even now, all these years later, I'm asking that question, and you immediately just start scratching your head.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: No, it's tough because, look, this is a dilemma that, and Chris Hansen, by the way, very much defended it and felt like he was a champion. for, uh, potential, like anyone who, by the way, has, has been the victim of a pedophile or a predator.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: He feels like getting these people off the street was a duty, a civic duty. So yes, it was entertainment.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: He was getting paid, but he, I, he genuinely felt like he was doing a good deed.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: He was providing a service.
00:02:38
Speaker 1: And he continues to make that argument, and that's why he has so many issues, Robes, with this movie. We have been seeing the previews of this for a while now, because we go to theaters, and it was, for a while, it was one that we would always see. And Robes, just the way the trailer was being presented, and we only go to horror movies for the most part, it came off like a horror movie.
00:02:59
Speaker 3: It did.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: The preview. It's not categorized as that, but it seems dark. It's a thriller, is what it's... Depicted as. So it comes out this weekend. It's number four at the box office, but Robes, it's doing pretty well. It doesn't have a big budget. It's $ 25 million or so. It made $ 19 million this weekend. That's a very good start. It's getting a lot of buzz because Chris Hansen keeps talking about it, and now there's controversy.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: And Robert Pattinson, by the way, is the star actor. He's playing Chris Hansen. And so that's also a big draw as well. But you said this was a limited release, right? It wasn't a wide release in a lot of theaters. So to make $ 19. 2 million is significant.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Great start. Thank you, Chris Hansen. Really, Rogue, so much about this movie. Yes, Pattinson is... He is the actor of the moment and maybe of the generation is the argument. And he is getting Oscar buzz for this particular one. But, Rose, he was in, what, Odyssey? What else did he have this summer?
00:03:52
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: Oh, Drama. Yes. With Zendaya. Yes. He's got Batman coming back up, I think, in the next couple of years. He's the man. He is a wonderful actor. And I'm glad, Rose, this is like the, he's the Justin Bieber of Hollywood for me. Like, I wasn't into Bieber when he was a kid doing the bop stuff.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: But once he matured, I love him. Same thing with Pattinson. Wasn't he the heartthrob from the.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, Twilight series.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Yes, I didn't know anything about him.
00:04:16
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh. I watched all of those with the girls. That was their... Oh, my. They love some Robert Pattinson.
00:04:21
Speaker 1: Now I love this guy. So he is that for me now. I didn't know this guy, Lance Oppenheim. Wasn't that familiar? A documentarian. He's doing the one that's out now, the Elizabeth Holmes one that everybody's talking about.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: That's getting a lot of buzz.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: That's his as well. But if you don't know, primetime, we got the synopsis here for you. Also, Rob, that's a pretty good... Don't you tell me you don't see Rotten Tomatoes scores for the audience and the critics that are oftentimes that close.
00:04:48
Speaker 3: They're not. A lot of times they're very different.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: And so, yes, I always like the audience score to me is always a better bellwether as to whether or not we're going to like it because sometimes critics are... Yes, they like things that are obscure or a little... too strange for my taste. But no, these jibes. So the critics gave Primetime 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience score is at 81%. So it is highly acclaimed and well-received and who knows, this could push it up into more theaters now that it's done so well.
00:05:15
Speaker 1: It will because, Rose, we had no plan to talk about it.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: But now I want to see it.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: Because of what? Look, if Chris Hansen didn't want people to see this movie, this is a weird way to go about it. He now has me interested.
00:05:26
Speaker 3: I hear you.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: I agree.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: So here's the synopsis for the movie.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: In primetime, it's 2006, and Chris Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson, is working at NBC on the popular reality show To Catch a Predator with his loyal producer, Andy Bender, who's played by Merritt Weaver. Chris is convinced that the show, which purports to track down online sexual predators and pedophiles, is doing good in the world. Then the team is informed that the show is going to be moved to prime time in the same time slot as ultra-popular sci-fi series Lost. And Chris promises that he'll up his game to lure in more viewers. At the same time, the show hires a new decoy, Dan Plum, an adult actor who's capable of playing age 13. Dan is eager to prove himself and earn a SAG card, so he puts in the hard work. When veteran online predator tracker Xavier finds a big target in Texas, the team goes there to lure in the biggest whale of their careers.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: And that's the setup. Uh, that's the longer synopsis, the best explainer out there, but that one does do a very good job of explaining what this is. So it goes, did you remember robes? I did not. This show was only on for three years.
00:06:48
Speaker 3: I didn't know that. I thought it was much longer. I thought it was a long running. I was working at NBC when it's in its heyday.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: So he, Chris Hansen was everywhere. Everybody wanted to, I was at MSNBC for the most part. And so, yes, we would try to get him on before, uh, The shows would come on because, yeah, he was the star over there.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: I mean, you had Matt Lauer. You had, obviously, Tom Brokaw.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: And you had all sorts of big, heavy hitters. But Chris Hansen was the guy.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: Because this show went beyond Robes News. He became an entertainer. And that was exactly what the problem was at the time. So it was only on from 2004 to 2007, 2008.
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: As the synopsis is explaining there, Robes, and I didn't remember what it was that caused the end of the show, and there's some debate about what it was, but Robes, one of the people that were targeted, ended up dying by suicide. And this drew a new attention to The show at the time and a new scrutiny to the show at the time.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously people were truly questioning the ethics or just the value in it. And this all took place in February of 2007. So a prosecutor in Texas, 56 years old, his name was Louis Bill Conrad. And he was exchanging... Sexually explicit messages with that decoy, that actor who could play a 13-year-old.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Some awful stuff, actually. Some really awful stuff.
00:08:17
Speaker 3: Some very disgusting stuff.
00:08:19
Speaker 2: And look, this is when the team would then normally go in and catch their predator.
00:08:27
Speaker 1: But they didn't get that far on this one. So the NBC team, the team had a staged house, per usual. This Conrad guy, however, never came to the house. They exchanged these messages. Now, according to NBC robes, they weren't involved up to this point. They used, what was the name of this group they used that was actually contacting the guy, this group that specifically does this type of work that they coordinate with. Fine. So they say this group was in touch with this prosecutor. Then police, they claim, on their own, decided to go to Bill Conrad's house and arrest him. because of these lewd images. NBC cameras were along when they went to the house. So police get there. They make contact. They have to rush in, have to burst in and bang down the door robes, and the man takes his life, shoots himself before authorities can get to him. So now you have a man who has died by suicide after what appeared to be an NBC sting operation was being set up. That obviously was going to cause problems for the show. Yes.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: And Conrad's family sued NBC. There was a settlement that was reached. And then look, you can say it was just coincidence, but almost certainly it was not.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: NBC canceled the show the following year in 2008.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: Chris Hansen has used the argument that the show had just run its course. Okay.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: That's highly unlikely.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: Three years, hit show, still a part of pop culture, still making movies about it. It was, it was a phenomenon. They would never.
00:10:03
Speaker 3: It would have continued. It would have continued. No question.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: Again, this, it was interesting because I remember I came to NBC in 2003. The show began in 2004. So yes, this was a juggernaut. There aren't primetime hits. And even back then there weren't many primetime hits.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: I mean, There were still some, but they were searching.
00:10:20
Speaker 2: And certainly to be able to do a news show or an entertainment show that's in the news division, that's money, money, money for the network.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: So they would never have canceled that show.
00:10:29
Speaker 1: But here we are all these years later. Now, Chris Hansen, what he's been up to, and he's been up to a lot, Robes. And throughout this time, he has, and I guess you would, he has been promoting his.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: It's a podcast he has and a streaming true crime network. So he has been engaged in fine using the publicity, if you will, of the movie. But not because he's like, hey, go see the movie. And hey, this is cool. And hey, let me talk to you about that. He's taken it as a campaign robe to be anti this film and call it a pure work of fiction.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said he was not involved with the film whatsoever. He said he didn't obviously have any say in who played him. But yeah, he said it's an insult to the men and women who work on child sex crimes. And he's pissed because I guess they came to him at the end. He said to come to you at the last minute and say we've done this and we didn't feel that we had to come to you to discuss it seems sneaky and somewhat disingenuous.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: He has been going after them from the jump. robes uh he also and you and i know this because we have seen plenty of screeners of big time movies oftentimes you do have to sign an nda you'd have to sign something to say i'm not going to go out there or the embargoes even yep you're not going to go out there and start talking about it or talk about what you've seen he made a big deal about an nda they asked him to see before the screening and that it was so restrictive and it was so like he was signing something away and the director came out it's it's an nda.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: We do this all the time you always had to.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: We're going to let you see something that's not released yet. You're going to have special information. Don't go talk about it. They even made a big deal, and there was a fight publicly about that. The point is, Robes, it's been nasty. And he doesn't like the way he's being depicted.
00:12:13
Speaker 2: No. And he had some words after he did go see this in the movie theater.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: He said he wasn't going. He was talking about it for a while without having seen it. And then he finally went and made a big show of it.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Yes, he took advantage, perhaps, of some of that publicity. But his reaction was this. This was his quote. It was so detached from reality or anything I've ever experienced then or now doing the investigation, I'm really not sure what the point of it was.
00:12:42
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:12:42
Speaker 1: That has to suck. I mean, he has been criticized. I mean, he knows the heat that came his way then, and it's coming up again now. Yes, I'd be upset if... This big blockbuster. He might win an Oscar for depicting me as a clown.
00:12:59
Speaker 2: Right?
00:13:00
Speaker 3: And then there's nothing you can say or do about it. Yeah, you would be. I get that. I get that.
00:13:04
Speaker 1: It just came out. There might be an Oscar campaign that goes for the next several months. Oh, my goodness. So that's why he's pissed. However, wherever you come down on this, we included the comments of the actual director. And we're going to let you hear them in just a moment and see if he... Maybe put some context to what Chris Hansen has been criticizing and why. Stay here.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Now we definitely have to see the movie Primetime. It did well this weekend, and Chris Hansen is not too happy about it.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: He actually added to the box office success, went to go see the movie after he said he wouldn't. But yes, he calls it pure fiction.
00:13:57
Speaker 2: The director, Lance Oppenheim, has some things to say about Chris Hansen.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: You know, I thought he was very measured. He was complimentary at times, but he was also, this was just so good that we wanted to include it. And he did this with a publication, I think it was Variety, it might have been Deadline, but he did it with one of the two. We're going to take these in pieces, and this is how he explained what's been happening. Quote, I think whoever the real Chris Hansen is no longer exists. He's addressing a very serious issue and getting really disturbed people off the street. But he's also turning that pursuit into a commercial object. That's a very difficult dance.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't like that, I bet, Chris Hansen.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: But isn't that the point of what we're talking? And it's up for debate. You've got a guy who wants... You're competing... Against entertainment shows claiming to handle this very serious topic. Correct.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Right?
00:14:55
Speaker 1: We're turning this into entertainment. Something about that feels a little icky.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Right. And then it is kind of ironic then that Hansen's so upset about it being turned into a movie, the ultimate form of entertainment. Because Lance Oppenheim, by the way, did... did this interview with Variety. Yes, I was able to confirm that. He went on to say, I wanted to take the internet's version of Chris Hansen. A person can go a little bit too self-mythologized, but at a certain point, people mythologize you. That's how legends are born. I wanted to make something that felt like a fever dream, but captured an emotional truth. When you spend a lot of time doing reportage on an extremely dark subject, it must rub off on you. Rob and I watched him on Theo Vaughn's podcast, and Theo asked how he deals with all the darkness. He said, I just bury it deep down inside.
00:15:49
Speaker 3: That was a really telling answer.
00:15:52
Speaker 1: He sounds like he suggests Chris Hansen needs therapy. I thought that was such an interesting answer. This is some really deep, dark stuff that maybe messed with this guy in ways that we might be seeing in the way he's acting right now. Rose, this guy, Lance, I don't know his movies. He said some things in this interview that made me go, huh, this guy might have his shit together.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: I mean, he's very smart about how he described Chris Hansen. He went on to, I thought this was interesting. He said when Chris Hansen first heard about it, he was quite excited. Since then, he has done what Chris Hansen, the showman, does and has said a lot more about it. His reaction to the film right now is exactly what the film is about. Boom.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: We should have saved that one for the end.
00:16:45
Speaker 3: Damn, that's a mic drop right there. That's gross.
00:16:47
Speaker 1: Yes, you're seeing him do it once again. It's entertainment. It's performative. He's taking this and doing it. He's, like, I'm wrecking it. He even had some quotes wrote, and you saw it as well, saying, I was a fan. I am still a fan. But he is impressed by... The showman part of who this guy is. Groves, we got one more here. I just thought this guy brought it home.
00:17:09
Speaker 3: He really did.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: He said what he does, and he's talking again about Chris Hansen, what Chris Hansen does is also connected to a very ancient idea. Thousands of years of performative justice. The pillory, the whipping posts. When you turn that spectacle of punishment into a television show that has to compete against lost people, You've opened a Pandora's box.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: That's good. Wow. He's saying, okay, we can have this conversation, but that's fair. That's reasonable. The other question there is, Robes, does it matter? If you're doing such good that you're getting these people off the streets and you're keeping a kid from being a victim, if it's entertainment, so be it. That's worth whatever it takes. Can we answer that question?
00:17:55
Speaker 3: I don't know if we can.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: It depends because to your point, you know, you better damn well be sure you've got the right person and just the impact to have somebody basically publicly skewered before they're even arrested or before they're even charged, I guess, as they're being arrested without.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: An opportunity to defend themselves. I don't know. It is murky at best.
00:18:19
Speaker 1: Well, I guess we got to go see this movie now.
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Yes, we do.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: All right, put that on your radar. But yes, Robes and folks, it did well over the weekend, even though it ended up in fourth place. It had what is considered to be a stellar weekend. It might have some legs going the next couple weeks, because now what? We just put it on your radar. Now it's on our radar. Here we go. Congratulations to Chris Pattinson and the folks over there.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: Robert Pattinson.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: What did I call him?
00:18:44
Speaker 3: You said Chris Pattinson.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I meant to say. You all knew what I was getting at. Okay, thanks for listening. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, September 28th, and Chris Hansen is pissed. He's pissed about how he's being depicted in the new blockbuster film, Prime Time, where it talks about the show to catch a predator. Problem is, some say Hansen is the one almost being depicted as a predator. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes Podcast. Hit show, a phenomenon, wasn't on that long. We still talk about it, but Robes, there was, if people don't remember, there always was an ethical debate about this show.
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Yes, because you are literally setting up people. And it's something you would see perhaps law enforcement do, setting up a sting operation.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: But instead, you've got camera crews ready to catch you in the act.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: And they actually hired an actor to depict a young child, someone who would lure a predator to them and then catch them before anything untoward happened. And so, yes, it was ethically questionable without a doubt, but it was entertaining and It was highly successful.
00:01:14
Speaker 3: People tuned in. They wanted to see.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: To the point, Robes, 20 now years after it's gone off, they're still making movies about it. And it's still stirring up debate. I'm not sure. I'm sure it's streaming somewhere. People can still watch To Catch a Predator. But, Robes, it was prime time, must-see, cringey television. And, Robes, I don't know where one would come down. You and I haven't had this discussion. This is a public film. A public shaming of someone before they have a chance to defend themselves, before all the circumstances are out there. Robes, you're getting put on camera, labeled a pedophile on prime time. That was the show.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: That was the show.
00:01:55
Speaker 1: And even though, Robes, if you think you're doing good, should it be entertainment? Even if you're doing good, getting possible dangerous folks off the street. See, even now, all these years later, I'm asking that question, and you immediately just start scratching your head.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: No, it's tough because, look, this is a dilemma that, and Chris Hansen, by the way, very much defended it and felt like he was a champion. for, uh, potential, like anyone who, by the way, has, has been the victim of a pedophile or a predator.
00:02:24
Speaker 3: He feels like getting these people off the street was a duty, a civic duty. So yes, it was entertainment.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:02:31
Speaker 2: He was getting paid, but he, I, he genuinely felt like he was doing a good deed.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: He was providing a service.
00:02:38
Speaker 1: And he continues to make that argument, and that's why he has so many issues, Robes, with this movie. We have been seeing the previews of this for a while now, because we go to theaters, and it was, for a while, it was one that we would always see. And Robes, just the way the trailer was being presented, and we only go to horror movies for the most part, it came off like a horror movie.
00:02:59
Speaker 3: It did.
00:03:00
Speaker 1: The preview. It's not categorized as that, but it seems dark. It's a thriller, is what it's... Depicted as. So it comes out this weekend. It's number four at the box office, but Robes, it's doing pretty well. It doesn't have a big budget. It's $ 25 million or so. It made $ 19 million this weekend. That's a very good start. It's getting a lot of buzz because Chris Hansen keeps talking about it, and now there's controversy.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: And Robert Pattinson, by the way, is the star actor. He's playing Chris Hansen. And so that's also a big draw as well. But you said this was a limited release, right? It wasn't a wide release in a lot of theaters. So to make $ 19. 2 million is significant.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: Great start. Thank you, Chris Hansen. Really, Rogue, so much about this movie. Yes, Pattinson is... He is the actor of the moment and maybe of the generation is the argument. And he is getting Oscar buzz for this particular one. But, Rose, he was in, what, Odyssey? What else did he have this summer?
00:03:52
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:03:52
Speaker 1: Oh, Drama. Yes. With Zendaya. Yes. He's got Batman coming back up, I think, in the next couple of years. He's the man. He is a wonderful actor. And I'm glad, Rose, this is like the, he's the Justin Bieber of Hollywood for me. Like, I wasn't into Bieber when he was a kid doing the bop stuff.
00:04:09
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker 1: But once he matured, I love him. Same thing with Pattinson. Wasn't he the heartthrob from the.
00:04:14
Speaker 3: Oh, yes, Twilight series.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Yes, I didn't know anything about him.
00:04:16
Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh. I watched all of those with the girls. That was their... Oh, my. They love some Robert Pattinson.
00:04:21
Speaker 1: Now I love this guy. So he is that for me now. I didn't know this guy, Lance Oppenheim. Wasn't that familiar? A documentarian. He's doing the one that's out now, the Elizabeth Holmes one that everybody's talking about.
00:04:33
Speaker 3: That's getting a lot of buzz.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: That's his as well. But if you don't know, primetime, we got the synopsis here for you. Also, Rob, that's a pretty good... Don't you tell me you don't see Rotten Tomatoes scores for the audience and the critics that are oftentimes that close.
00:04:48
Speaker 3: They're not. A lot of times they're very different.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: And so, yes, I always like the audience score to me is always a better bellwether as to whether or not we're going to like it because sometimes critics are... Yes, they like things that are obscure or a little... too strange for my taste. But no, these jibes. So the critics gave Primetime 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience score is at 81%. So it is highly acclaimed and well-received and who knows, this could push it up into more theaters now that it's done so well.
00:05:15
Speaker 1: It will because, Rose, we had no plan to talk about it.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: But now I want to see it.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: Because of what? Look, if Chris Hansen didn't want people to see this movie, this is a weird way to go about it. He now has me interested.
00:05:26
Speaker 3: I hear you.
00:05:27
Speaker 1: I agree.
00:05:27
Speaker 3: So here's the synopsis for the movie.
00:05:29
Speaker 2: In primetime, it's 2006, and Chris Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson, is working at NBC on the popular reality show To Catch a Predator with his loyal producer, Andy Bender, who's played by Merritt Weaver. Chris is convinced that the show, which purports to track down online sexual predators and pedophiles, is doing good in the world. Then the team is informed that the show is going to be moved to prime time in the same time slot as ultra-popular sci-fi series Lost. And Chris promises that he'll up his game to lure in more viewers. At the same time, the show hires a new decoy, Dan Plum, an adult actor who's capable of playing age 13. Dan is eager to prove himself and earn a SAG card, so he puts in the hard work. When veteran online predator tracker Xavier finds a big target in Texas, the team goes there to lure in the biggest whale of their careers.
00:06:33
Speaker 1: And that's the setup. Uh, that's the longer synopsis, the best explainer out there, but that one does do a very good job of explaining what this is. So it goes, did you remember robes? I did not. This show was only on for three years.
00:06:48
Speaker 3: I didn't know that. I thought it was much longer. I thought it was a long running. I was working at NBC when it's in its heyday.
00:06:55
Speaker 2: So he, Chris Hansen was everywhere. Everybody wanted to, I was at MSNBC for the most part. And so, yes, we would try to get him on before, uh, The shows would come on because, yeah, he was the star over there.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: I mean, you had Matt Lauer. You had, obviously, Tom Brokaw.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: And you had all sorts of big, heavy hitters. But Chris Hansen was the guy.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: Because this show went beyond Robes News. He became an entertainer. And that was exactly what the problem was at the time. So it was only on from 2004 to 2007, 2008.
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Wow.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: As the synopsis is explaining there, Robes, and I didn't remember what it was that caused the end of the show, and there's some debate about what it was, but Robes, one of the people that were targeted, ended up dying by suicide. And this drew a new attention to The show at the time and a new scrutiny to the show at the time.
00:07:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously people were truly questioning the ethics or just the value in it. And this all took place in February of 2007. So a prosecutor in Texas, 56 years old, his name was Louis Bill Conrad. And he was exchanging... Sexually explicit messages with that decoy, that actor who could play a 13-year-old.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Some awful stuff, actually. Some really awful stuff.
00:08:17
Speaker 3: Some very disgusting stuff.
00:08:19
Speaker 2: And look, this is when the team would then normally go in and catch their predator.
00:08:27
Speaker 1: But they didn't get that far on this one. So the NBC team, the team had a staged house, per usual. This Conrad guy, however, never came to the house. They exchanged these messages. Now, according to NBC robes, they weren't involved up to this point. They used, what was the name of this group they used that was actually contacting the guy, this group that specifically does this type of work that they coordinate with. Fine. So they say this group was in touch with this prosecutor. Then police, they claim, on their own, decided to go to Bill Conrad's house and arrest him. because of these lewd images. NBC cameras were along when they went to the house. So police get there. They make contact. They have to rush in, have to burst in and bang down the door robes, and the man takes his life, shoots himself before authorities can get to him. So now you have a man who has died by suicide after what appeared to be an NBC sting operation was being set up. That obviously was going to cause problems for the show. Yes.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: And Conrad's family sued NBC. There was a settlement that was reached. And then look, you can say it was just coincidence, but almost certainly it was not.
00:09:46
Speaker 3: NBC canceled the show the following year in 2008.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: Chris Hansen has used the argument that the show had just run its course. Okay.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: That's highly unlikely.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: Three years, hit show, still a part of pop culture, still making movies about it. It was, it was a phenomenon. They would never.
00:10:03
Speaker 3: It would have continued. It would have continued. No question.
00:10:05
Speaker 2: Again, this, it was interesting because I remember I came to NBC in 2003. The show began in 2004. So yes, this was a juggernaut. There aren't primetime hits. And even back then there weren't many primetime hits.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: I mean, There were still some, but they were searching.
00:10:20
Speaker 2: And certainly to be able to do a news show or an entertainment show that's in the news division, that's money, money, money for the network.
00:10:26
Speaker 3: So they would never have canceled that show.
00:10:29
Speaker 1: But here we are all these years later. Now, Chris Hansen, what he's been up to, and he's been up to a lot, Robes. And throughout this time, he has, and I guess you would, he has been promoting his.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: It's a podcast he has and a streaming true crime network. So he has been engaged in fine using the publicity, if you will, of the movie. But not because he's like, hey, go see the movie. And hey, this is cool. And hey, let me talk to you about that. He's taken it as a campaign robe to be anti this film and call it a pure work of fiction.
00:11:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said he was not involved with the film whatsoever. He said he didn't obviously have any say in who played him. But yeah, he said it's an insult to the men and women who work on child sex crimes. And he's pissed because I guess they came to him at the end. He said to come to you at the last minute and say we've done this and we didn't feel that we had to come to you to discuss it seems sneaky and somewhat disingenuous.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: He has been going after them from the jump. robes uh he also and you and i know this because we have seen plenty of screeners of big time movies oftentimes you do have to sign an nda you'd have to sign something to say i'm not going to go out there or the embargoes even yep you're not going to go out there and start talking about it or talk about what you've seen he made a big deal about an nda they asked him to see before the screening and that it was so restrictive and it was so like he was signing something away and the director came out it's it's an nda.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: We do this all the time you always had to.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: We're going to let you see something that's not released yet. You're going to have special information. Don't go talk about it. They even made a big deal, and there was a fight publicly about that. The point is, Robes, it's been nasty. And he doesn't like the way he's being depicted.
00:12:13
Speaker 2: No. And he had some words after he did go see this in the movie theater.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: He said he wasn't going. He was talking about it for a while without having seen it. And then he finally went and made a big show of it.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Yes, he took advantage, perhaps, of some of that publicity. But his reaction was this. This was his quote. It was so detached from reality or anything I've ever experienced then or now doing the investigation, I'm really not sure what the point of it was.
00:12:42
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:12:42
Speaker 1: That has to suck. I mean, he has been criticized. I mean, he knows the heat that came his way then, and it's coming up again now. Yes, I'd be upset if... This big blockbuster. He might win an Oscar for depicting me as a clown.
00:12:59
Speaker 2: Right?
00:13:00
Speaker 3: And then there's nothing you can say or do about it. Yeah, you would be. I get that. I get that.
00:13:04
Speaker 1: It just came out. There might be an Oscar campaign that goes for the next several months. Oh, my goodness. So that's why he's pissed. However, wherever you come down on this, we included the comments of the actual director. And we're going to let you hear them in just a moment and see if he... Maybe put some context to what Chris Hansen has been criticizing and why. Stay here.
00:13:37
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Now we definitely have to see the movie Primetime. It did well this weekend, and Chris Hansen is not too happy about it.
00:13:50
Speaker 3: He actually added to the box office success, went to go see the movie after he said he wouldn't. But yes, he calls it pure fiction.
00:13:57
Speaker 2: The director, Lance Oppenheim, has some things to say about Chris Hansen.
00:14:03
Speaker 1: You know, I thought he was very measured. He was complimentary at times, but he was also, this was just so good that we wanted to include it. And he did this with a publication, I think it was Variety, it might have been Deadline, but he did it with one of the two. We're going to take these in pieces, and this is how he explained what's been happening. Quote, I think whoever the real Chris Hansen is no longer exists. He's addressing a very serious issue and getting really disturbed people off the street. But he's also turning that pursuit into a commercial object. That's a very difficult dance.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't like that, I bet, Chris Hansen.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: But isn't that the point of what we're talking? And it's up for debate. You've got a guy who wants... You're competing... Against entertainment shows claiming to handle this very serious topic. Correct.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Right?
00:14:55
Speaker 1: We're turning this into entertainment. Something about that feels a little icky.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: Right. And then it is kind of ironic then that Hansen's so upset about it being turned into a movie, the ultimate form of entertainment. Because Lance Oppenheim, by the way, did... did this interview with Variety. Yes, I was able to confirm that. He went on to say, I wanted to take the internet's version of Chris Hansen. A person can go a little bit too self-mythologized, but at a certain point, people mythologize you. That's how legends are born. I wanted to make something that felt like a fever dream, but captured an emotional truth. When you spend a lot of time doing reportage on an extremely dark subject, it must rub off on you. Rob and I watched him on Theo Vaughn's podcast, and Theo asked how he deals with all the darkness. He said, I just bury it deep down inside.
00:15:49
Speaker 3: That was a really telling answer.
00:15:52
Speaker 1: He sounds like he suggests Chris Hansen needs therapy. I thought that was such an interesting answer. This is some really deep, dark stuff that maybe messed with this guy in ways that we might be seeing in the way he's acting right now. Rose, this guy, Lance, I don't know his movies. He said some things in this interview that made me go, huh, this guy might have his shit together.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: I mean, he's very smart about how he described Chris Hansen. He went on to, I thought this was interesting. He said when Chris Hansen first heard about it, he was quite excited. Since then, he has done what Chris Hansen, the showman, does and has said a lot more about it. His reaction to the film right now is exactly what the film is about. Boom.
00:16:44
Speaker 1: We should have saved that one for the end.
00:16:45
Speaker 3: Damn, that's a mic drop right there. That's gross.
00:16:47
Speaker 1: Yes, you're seeing him do it once again. It's entertainment. It's performative. He's taking this and doing it. He's, like, I'm wrecking it. He even had some quotes wrote, and you saw it as well, saying, I was a fan. I am still a fan. But he is impressed by... The showman part of who this guy is. Groves, we got one more here. I just thought this guy brought it home.
00:17:09
Speaker 3: He really did.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: He said what he does, and he's talking again about Chris Hansen, what Chris Hansen does is also connected to a very ancient idea. Thousands of years of performative justice. The pillory, the whipping posts. When you turn that spectacle of punishment into a television show that has to compete against lost people, You've opened a Pandora's box.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: That's good. Wow. He's saying, okay, we can have this conversation, but that's fair. That's reasonable. The other question there is, Robes, does it matter? If you're doing such good that you're getting these people off the streets and you're keeping a kid from being a victim, if it's entertainment, so be it. That's worth whatever it takes. Can we answer that question?
00:17:55
Speaker 3: I don't know if we can.
00:17:56
Speaker 2: It depends because to your point, you know, you better damn well be sure you've got the right person and just the impact to have somebody basically publicly skewered before they're even arrested or before they're even charged, I guess, as they're being arrested without.
00:18:14
Speaker 3: An opportunity to defend themselves. I don't know. It is murky at best.
00:18:19
Speaker 1: Well, I guess we got to go see this movie now.
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Yes, we do.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: All right, put that on your radar. But yes, Robes and folks, it did well over the weekend, even though it ended up in fourth place. It had what is considered to be a stellar weekend. It might have some legs going the next couple weeks, because now what? We just put it on your radar. Now it's on our radar. Here we go. Congratulations to Chris Pattinson and the folks over there.
00:18:43
Speaker 3: Robert Pattinson.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: What did I call him?
00:18:44
Speaker 3: You said Chris Pattinson.
00:18:46
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I meant to say. You all knew what I was getting at. Okay, thanks for listening. We'll talk to you soon.