‘To Catch a Predator’ Host Chris Hansen Criticizes Robert Pattinson’s ‘Primetime’ After Watching the Film

Chris Hansen, the TV journalist who became a household name as the host of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” has publicly shared his negative response to “Primetime,” the 2025 thriller starring Robert Pattinson that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Hansen, whose career has focused on confronting online predators on camera, objected to the film’s treatment of themes of media sensationalism and television ethics.

Chris Hansen, former host of “To Catch a Predator,” watched Robert Pattinson’s 2025 Sundance movie “Primetime” and publicly shared that he was not impressed. The thriller explores ratings-driven television journalism and media exploitation in the 1980s, and Hansen took issue with its treatment of subject matter that intersects with his own career in investigative television.

Primetime is a 2025 thriller directed by Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska. The film stars Robert Pattinson as Ron, a character set in a 1980s television news environment. The story explores the stress of ratings-based journalism, media sensationalism, and the ethical dilemmas that surface when television networks value audience figures over responsible journalism.

The film premiered at Sundance in 2025 and stirred controversy with its bleak take on the television industry and its willingness to use sensitive material for entertainment. The cast also includes Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The themes of the film the convergence of television, exploitation, and the desire to shock for ratings are right in the terrain Hansen has inhabited for much of his professional life.

Chris Hansen gained fame for his work on NBC’s “Dateline” segment “To Catch a Predator” that ran from 2004 to 2007. The show included sting operations where Hansen confronted people who had come to decoy houses to meet someone they thought was a minor, on camera. The show was produced in conjunction with the online watchdog group Perverted-Justice.

The segment was well received but highly controversial. Advocates said it increased public awareness about online predation. Questions were raised about the show’s legality, the ethics of televising confrontations, the involvement of a commercial television network in what was essentially law enforcement activity, and the possibility of entrapment and due process violations. The show was canceled after a Texas district attorney committed suicide after a “To Catch a Predator” sting was made public.

Hansen has continued his work in the space on his own, hosting the “Have a Seat with Chris Hansen” YouTube series,s which follows a similar confrontational format.

In this context, Hansen’s critique of “Primetime” is particularly telling. The film’s examination of how television might leverage real harm for ratings and amusement directly echoes the critiques leveled at Hansen’s own work over the years.

Hansen made his reaction to the movie public and made it clear he was not a fan. He criticized how the film depicted television media and its treatment of exploitation and sensationalism.

Hansen’s response has struck a chord with those who know his career, as it comes from someone who has both practiced and been criticized for how television handles sensitive issues, commenting on a fictional work that explores those very dynamics.

As of this report, representatives for Robert Pattinson and director Małgorzata Szumowska have not publicly responded to Hansen’s comments.

Hansen’s response and the movie’s theme join a broader cultural conversation about media morality, especially television’s association with exploitation, sensationalism, and tangible harm.

“Primetime” uses a make-believe setting in the 1980s to explore dynamics that remain relevant in today’s media landscape — the drive to produce shocking content, the merging of journalism and entertainment, and the human cost of programming that is driven by ratings.

Hansen’s critique adds real-world context to the conversation. His answer calls into question the veracity and responsibility of fictional works in their representation of the media worlds they represent and whether those representations hold up under the scrutiny of those who have worked in those worlds, as one whose career has been defined by confrontational television that deals with predatory behavior.

The exchange also gets into broader battles in entertainment over who has the right to tell stories about exploitation and media ethics, and how those stories are received by people with first-hand professional experience in the relevant fields.

“Primetime” Background: “Primetime” was one of the notable premieres at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025. Director Małgorzata Szumowska, whose credits include Body (2015) and Never Going to Snow Again (2020), brought the project to Sundance as a dark, stylized look at the television industry.

Robert Pattinson has built a career playing peculiar and often dark characters in films such as “The Lighthouse” (2019), “The Batman” (2022), and “Mickey 17” (2025), so it makes sense that he would take the lead role in “Primetime” as part of his continued work with auteur directors on challenging projects.

The film received mixed reviews at Sundance, with some praising its bold stylistic choices and Pattinson’s committed performance, while others found its approach to heavy subject matter uneven.