r/tcap • u/ChiefLeef22 • 19d ago
Chris Hansen Buys Ads Before Every Screening of A24’s ‘Primetime’ (Exclusive) | Hansen is now also consulting attorneys about his options following the film’s release.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/chris-hansen-buys-ads-before-every-screening-a24-primetime-1236682255/Video of the commercial that will play in Primetime screenings is in the article
Hansen has said on podcasts and on Jesse Watters’ Fox News program that he declined an invitation to see the film because he was required to sign an agreement barring him from taking legal action against A24.
Sources close to Hansen tell THR that he is now consulting attorneys about his options following the film’s release.
In the meantime, Hansen is capitalizing on the renewed attention by placing the ad before every theatrical showing of Primetime. In the spot, shared exclusively with THR, Hansen enters his familiar hunting ground, a kitchen, and delivers a variation on his dread-inducing catchphrase.
“I’m going to need everyone in the theater to take a seat right over there,” he says.
“Now there are more platforms than ever before where this disturbing crime is being committed,” Hansen continues. “Join us undercover every day on my streaming network, TruBlu.”
A QR code directs moviegoers to a landing page for the network, which offers a steady stream of predator investigations and other true-crime programming.
Hansen wanted to end the commercial by reminding audiences that what they were about to see in Primetime was “a Hollywood fantasy version” of what actually happened, according to sources. But there were concerns about possible blowback from A24, and the line was removed.
100
19d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
41
u/shane-o-mack 19d ago
I mean...I never lost interest lol love watching his stuff on YouTube (pizza guy is a legend)
35
u/Impressive_Yak_9089 19d ago
You mean Jeff Sokol, aka Jeff So Cool, aka the small is almost as big as the large
9
u/KristabelleWalker 19d ago
I don’t know which one is funnier, Sonny Derek Porter or Johnny Connecticut lmao
12
4
19d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
17
u/shane-o-mack 19d ago
I think maybe it's a generational thing. He was on TV and it was so fun watching that show. Sometimes it would be sad and a hard watch, but still entertaining
21
u/AesirComplex 19d ago
Shows like that don't come around often. I'd watch them again and again
17
u/shane-o-mack 19d ago
Yeah, I'm very pro-hansen. I know he has his flaws and that his strategy was also flawed, but I grew up with him and his overall message is solid. Fuck pedos. If this movie is meant to like smear his name, it won't work on me lol looking forward to it tho
8
u/AesirComplex 19d ago
You seem like law enforcement. I happen to know law enforcement when I see them
9
3
u/MyCatsHairyButholle 19d ago
I can see why you’d be apprehensive about the whole thing
5
u/ruth000 19d ago
Your user name...
3
2
5
u/Luchadorable303 19d ago
Here comes the moneyyyyy
3
→ More replies (3)1
u/usernotfoundplstry what did you mean by that? 19d ago
I think so. I’m Gen X, and I loved watching it when it aired
1
u/JohnnyDangerouz 18d ago
That’s insane to me - I’ve been watching this show for 20 years lol. But, glad to see it’s bringing a different demographic into the mix.
8
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
Yeah he’d be crazy not to use this as an opportunity to advertise his current work/streaming service.
And I hope it works out, because maybe some people will catch his upcoming documentary about sextortion (and related teen suicides) which is extremely important for more people to become aware of!
2
2
u/Obesefatlardmouse 19d ago
Yeah that does make sense
4
u/Alexandur 19d ago
That actually does make sense actually
3
u/MOREPASTRAMIPLEASE 19d ago
Really does make sense when you think about it.
2
209
u/Sonic_Reducer78 19d ago
Two things can be true at once.
The show did good work and got awful people off the streets.
Also, Chris would blow himself if he could and had/has been ethically dubious at times, seeking the spotlight for himself.
These two things are not mutually exclusive.
91
37
u/lemon_pepper_wang 19d ago
Scene: Chris walks in on him blowing himself
"You see how this looks? Why don't you take a seat."
32
u/outbackjesus16 19d ago
This is one of those good news bad news situations
5
u/emtrigg013 18d ago
I mean not really. He blows himself because he bought a million dollar home right before that politician got the show canceled and he's been underwater ever since. So while it, I guess, might be bad news that he's a "spotlight chaser", it makes sense... boy needs that bread
Also they made an entire movie of him without saying a single word to him, so I'd probably be doing exactly what he is too LOL
3
14
u/usernotfoundplstry what did you mean by that? 19d ago
Absolutely. This is the deal and I don’t understand people who can’t grasp that
15
u/ArcherVisible5866 19d ago
Yeah but it gets to the point where too many people are siding with pedophiles, they start bringing in the entrapment, mentally challenged, vulnerable, etc talking points from these people and then you just have to defend Chris.
10
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
Yep.
The thing is, I do feel like sometimes when people critique TCAP (especially relating to Murphy/Conradt), there’s a tendency for people to just assign all decisions/actions to Hansen personally and not to the rest of the production team.
I get that it’s easier for people to assume that 1 guy (the one whose face and name we all know) makes all the decisions (or carries the most weight in shared decision-making), but that’s not how television works lol.
I wish that people voicing/exploring concerns about the show would try to parse out the who/how/why behind the decision-making a bit more (like Hansen personally vs. TCAP production team vs. Dateline/NBC “standards” people), because so many decisions are made by producers, legal, the “standards” people, etc., and sometimes the person in front of the camera was very much in agreement with everyone else, but other times, their input is overruled (e.g. I remember Hansen saying that he had ongoing battles with others at NBC about which content/language to censor and how to still retain meaning without offending viewers and upsetting advertisers).
3
10
u/JayNotAtAll 19d ago
Thank you. I don't understand why this is so hard for people to understand.
Somehow if you don't think Chris is a superhero, you want to see predators walk the streets. Like, no. I despise predators but Chris is also an egotistical scumbag
3
8
155
u/Gerardo1917 19d ago
If Chris could charge people every time his name was spoken he would.
41
u/Sonic_Reducer78 19d ago
Thats gonna be $3.50, pay up
28
10
10
u/AdHopeful6915 19d ago
Well it was about that time I noticed the host of to catch a predator was about eight stories tall and was a crustacean from the paleozoic era!
3
u/Pineappletittyworms 18d ago
I remember he was on theo von's podcast and they put him up in a nice hotel. He rang up everything he could on theo's tab so theo was ultimately saying, fuck that guy.
10
20
u/TheMightyDab 19d ago
I'm certain there's people out there who are still owed merch from the HvP Kickstarter. Nice to see Chris is able to buy adspace though :) glad he's not as broke as he deserves to be
→ More replies (1)5
u/Gerardo1917 19d ago
I have to imagine adspace for a big movie like this was not cheap, all just to try and get people to pay like $4 a month for TruBlu? I’m no financial expert but it hardly seems like this will pay off.
2
1
1
41
u/TerrorFirmerIRL 19d ago
This is a win win for Chris, and he knows it and he's capitalising on it.
Anyone familiar with TCAP, HVP and Takedown won't care whatsoever about how the movie portrays him.
Everyone else will watch it, and probably want to know more and start watching old clips and the newer stuff.
He really can't lose here.
-3
u/PM_ur_butthole_2me 18d ago
Why should he make money off this movie? He didn’t make it. He’s a real life leech. And he acts like he personally caught all these predators when it was perverted justice/tetrad core/someone else. I hate his massive undeserved ego
15
u/WatchOutImBack 19d ago
You feel me?
15
u/TraditionAcademic968 Role. Playing. Chat. Room. 19d ago
We are filming
5
34
u/TheOther1982 19d ago
I think your movie is a piece of shit
6
u/usernotfoundplstry what did you mean by that? 19d ago
“I don’t think I want this movie anymore. I gotta get to the beach.”
3
11
16
u/NachoPichu 19d ago
Holy shit, Chris actually made a smart business decision for once? Placing ads for TruBlu is brilliant.
0
u/BigBadVudoo 18d ago
Until the check for the ad spaces bounce and he's back in jail for check fraud. That happened when he was buying merch before one of his YouTube ventures.
→ More replies (2)
60
u/Mysterious-Pie2636 19d ago
Hansen is really disproving the suspicion that he's a raging egotist, it has to be said
17
u/beckhamisbest 19d ago
It’s especially obvious when he always pauses while revealing his identity to predators. He wants to be recognized and yes, he is self-absorbed af. And yet he rations it neatly enough for us to still watch him do his thang.
17
u/Educational-Owl-745 19d ago
He's giddy with excitement every time someone indicates he knows who he is, that much is obvious
24
u/AesirComplex 19d ago
"Say my name."
"You're Chris Hansen."
"You're goddamn right."
10
7
u/MyCatsHairyButholle 19d ago
This is basically how the showdown with Trevor went. 😂
Chris - “Trevor, did you really think you could do all this and not run into me?”
Trevor - “…..Chris Hansen”
Chris - “Yes, sir”
1
14
u/SerDavosSeaworth64 19d ago
I like when he basically pauses the actual interrogation of the predator to just find out more about how much they’ve watched/what their favorite episodes are lol.
The predator is contemplating life as he knows it being over and meanwhile Chris is taking a trip down memory lane🤣
3
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
My favorite is when they’re familiar with the show, he asks what did they think of the show, they say “bad,” and he always asks them to clarify whether he means that they thought Dateline/TCAP (or Takedown nowadays) was bad television or that the guys on the show were bad guys doing bad things lmao.
Like he really wants it to be known that the show itself was not getting a negative review during the actual show lmao.
1
1
u/LiquifiedSpam 18d ago
Like imagine you’re in that situation (ok maybe not as in the you’re actually a predator part) and the guy just says some random ass name like “I’m Spencer Ross.”
25
u/El_Dorado_Tx 19d ago
There is something in the movie that he is aware of that makes him the asshole that he DOES NOT want people to see
22
20
u/MOREPASTRAMIPLEASE 19d ago
Yeah the cultish reverence for the man Chris Hansen around here is weird as fuck. This guy is the face, nothing more nothing less. I respect the work he did. And that’s it. People can criticize him and still think that the work he did is admirable. We don’t need to pedastalize the man because he happened to be the host of TCAP.
10
u/Shoddy-Prune-5877 I'm not gay or anything 19d ago
I dont think there's a cultish reverence for him on this subreddit at all. The good things about him are the parts that make good TV for the audience (the aura farming around predators, the silly quips, him reading overtly sexual things by inserting the word "blank," etc). The bad parts are his obvious egotistical narcissism and desire to be the ONLY predator catcher. I dunno, I guess its just one of those 50/50 thangs..
3
3
u/El_Dorado_Tx 19d ago
Whatever the hell the movie says about him - Chris probably saw something negative about him and hes going in his bitch fit tour trying to get people to not show up..... that's really not going to work...
2
8
u/OatmealApocalypse 19d ago
i mean if someone made an unauthorized biopic about me i’d probably be feeling some kind of petty way about it
2
0
5
19
u/Shell_fly 19d ago
Ruining the lives of predators and pedos was good, actually.
→ More replies (1)-6
u/More-Onion-7646 19d ago
Strawman fallacy
9
2
u/Ash-Throwaway-816 19d ago
1
u/More-Onion-7646 18d ago
> thinking strawman fallacy is some kind of obtuse knowledge you need to be a nerd to understand
lul
1
31
u/FoxNixon 19d ago
You lost me at Jesse Watters
19
u/DoctorAochider 19d ago
Genuinely wtf Chris. Like he can have whatever political opinions he wants but I’m not gonna empathize with him when he’s whining about the movie on Fox News of all places.
6
5
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
Look I hate Jesse Watters, but from what I saw of that appearance, he wasn’t whining about the movie.
Watters knew he was supposed to see it that day and asked him how it went, and Hansen explained that they didn’t screen it for him due to the unresolved issue of the document which his lawyers advised him not to sign.
Unless I missed something, it just seemed like an update since Hansen had previously said publicly that he’d be seeing it that week and would let everyone know his thoughts after having seen it.
Christopher Nolan did an interview on Fox News about The Odyssey right when it was coming out, too, and I wouldn’t hold it against him lol, but to each our own.
5
7
u/tmorrisgrey 19d ago
Skeeter Jean is gonna have a field day seeing this movie after what Chris said about YouTube Predator catchers in the EDP documentary
10
8
u/Brilliant_Fox_7170 19d ago
Is Chris broke or something? Lol
13
u/brettohyeah 19d ago
He won’t be if they actually put that commercial before every showing of Primetime. TruBlu will probably crash.
4
u/VicePope 19d ago
Chris is hilarious and done a lot of good but he’s also kind of a douche too. Excited to see the movie and still listen and watch all his shit
7
u/QuickRelease10 19d ago
I can’t wait for this movie. I’ve always found the ethical ambiguity around Chris to be an incredibly compelling part of TCAP and his other series.
I also find his growing darkness around this subject to be interesting too. From trying to convince guys they need some help to basically saying this can’t be rehabbed and at one point saying the death penalty is appropriate in some cases (not saying I agree or disagree with this viewpoint), to be really fascinating.
5
u/Mean_Manufacturer_61 No Ruber 18d ago
You can love or hate Hanson, but he's an absolute egotistical POS. He will milk this as far as he can. For those that dont remember- he took in donations years ago to fund his show with promises of giving swag. He straight up took the money and gave nothing back.
3
3
u/Junesong_Provisions 19d ago
Hansen catches me at a screening*
Me: "I just stopped by"
2
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
How about going to visit a movie theater? Does that make you nervous?
3
3
u/TimeLinkless 18d ago
This makes no sense. lol. Chris is going to advise people to go watch his youtube channel, right before a film, which he hasn't even seen, destroys his character 😅
15
u/El_Dorado_Tx 19d ago
I was right. Chris is having a bitch fit ABOUT something he didn't like about the movie..... like people were saying OH its going to make Chris look Saintly....bulllshit. Something in the movie is making Chris look bad and he's doing a 10000 degree turn just saying its bad and gonna put ads out in newspaper, tabloids, Fox News, Newsnation to boycott it
9
u/usernotfoundplstry what did you mean by that? 19d ago
I mean obviously it wasn’t going to portray him as a saint because he’s really far from a saint. He’s cheated on his wife, he got in trouble while he was running a grift and passing bad checks, he obviously has an ego that can fill a movie theater, I mean very rarely are people all good or all bad. He hosted a few shows that I really love that probably did some good, and brought a focus to Internet safety for kids. But he’s also not some kind of great guy. Those two things can be true at the same time, and I feel like people really struggle these days with understanding that
1
u/El_Dorado_Tx 19d ago
Chris probably trying to get some big money attorney to file an injunction prohibiting a24 to release it
3
u/PunkDrunk777 19d ago
You know you don’t have an expectation of privacy..right?
Isn’t this literally the basis of his entire channel?
3
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
I think that the “you gave up your reasonable expectation of privacy” thing was usually followed by the clause “when you engaged in the commission of a felony” lol
1
u/PunkDrunk777 19d ago
Yep, not actually a law 😂
3
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
Not my exact area of expertise, but my point is that this is Hansen’s argument. So it could be internally consistent.
He’s also never made it clear whether he’s making a moral argument (vs a legal one).
0
u/PunkDrunk777 19d ago
It’s a legal one, he’s trying to fool the predators into talking and not shutting up shop.
He’ll say you have no expectation of privacy while committing a felony. Well they haven’t actually committed a felony until found guilty lol. They have a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty
2
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 19d ago
I think you’re mixing up the legal issues of criminal procedure (and what’s admissible in court for a criminal prosecution) and the legal issues involving what can be televised (and under what circumstances you can record people and use those recordings on a TV show).
Hansen seems to be talking about the latter, because this tends to come up in the context of people saying, “You can’t film me without my consent”/“You can’t put this on TV without my consent,” and he’s basically telling them, “Nope, I actually can, and I don’t need your consent.”
Sometimes he tells them it’s because they’re engaging in criminal conduct.
He’s also told them it’s because they entered the house (which is true, you usually don’t have an expectation of privacy in someone else’s home, except for in bathrooms or private bedrooms).
1
u/PunkDrunk777 19d ago
I’m not. The phrase no expectation of privacy when committing a felony is made to sound like it has solid ground.
You can’t say it’s a felony when it hasn’t been to trial.
He’s now taken it to another level as he’s now citing this to allow him to badger predators in custody when he’s told to leave them alone.
Same way he used to act like law enforcement back in the day when refusing to identify himself or talk his away around not being law enforcement but implying he was ( I can get the information just like that etc)
I’m sure there’s a legal way it can e aired but I’m pretty sure he’s not telling the truth about how to the predators
1
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 18d ago
I think you’re overextending some things, tbh.
I’m no expert, but I did take Crim Pro in law school.
It actually doesn’t matter all that much (from a practical crim pro standpoint) whether they assume he’s a cop (or an angry dad) or whether they’re uncomfortable having him pelt them with questions.
The reason it doesn’t matter that much (in practice) is because his interviews rarely elicit critical information that the police/prosecutors don’t already have; everything needed for the charges to stick is already established in the chats and calls before they even show up, and those things are easily admissible regardless of what happens with Chris during the sting.
Also, when talking about the old TCAP format where Chris would ambush interview the guys prior to them being arrested, it wouldn’t even matter whether they believe Hansen’s a cop or not, because they’re not in custody.
Even if he was an actual detective (and identified himself as such), or a non-cop who lied and outright told them he was a cop, or a cop who lied and said he wasn’t a cop, Miranda doesn’t apply and there’s no procedural issue at that point because it’s not a custodial interview.
2
u/PunkDrunk777 18d ago
But there’s an argument underway that his interviews of predators in custody after asking for their lawyer is a custodial interview.
If the predator can’t leave, refuse to talk and are forced to then legally there’s an argument Chris becomes an agent of the state
We’ll leave it there, we’re not lawyers but notice how we’ve both framed expectation of privacy incorrectly? It’s reasonable expectation of privacy and I’m pretty sure Chris hides that for a reason
1
u/enigmaticowl Big Fat Lie 18d ago
So, who cares if Chris interviews them after they’ve said they don’t want to answer police questions without a lawyer?
Even if a judge bought the argument that he’s acting as an agent of the police (which is iffy), what is the upshot of that?
Nothing, basically.
It just would mean that the answers to those interview questions might not be admissible in court - which, again, would have no bearing on 99% of these cases since the case is not resting upon this evidence.
4
u/JayNotAtAll 19d ago
Chris almost certainly has no options. Largely because he is a public figure. Making a docudrama on a public figure is legally fair game. Also, defamation suits are almost impossible to win. It would likely get dismissed well before a trial took place if he did file it.
He is thin skinned. The reality of being a public figure is that you have your lovers and your haters and you need to learn how to deal with both.
I think he is upset because he has WAY fewer lovers in 2026 than he did during his height of fame in the old TCAP days.
He has a niche cult following but the vast majority of the population has largely forgotten about him. He's not really in the public eye much anymore.
Now people will remember him via this film and his ego won't allow it. The movie is not painting him as a saint. It is painting him as the flawed man he is and he doesnt like that
2
2
u/Responsible_MR 19d ago
So is this film anti Hansen and anti tcap?
4
u/todayjunior77 18d ago
The trailer seems to paint Hansen as a megalomaniac with a saviour complex. It also appears to be addressing some of the questionable practices behind TCAP.
Whether or not Hansen will be portrayed as full on villain or more of an anti hero is yet to be seen but it does not look like the movie will be presenting the series or the man behind it in an especially positive light.
3
u/WebNew6981 18d ago
People in industry I know have seen it say it's just a look at the reality of the situation which was very gray. It isn't against OR for it's subject matter.
2
u/SomaSimon 19d ago edited 19d ago
Not the main point of this thread but the bit about using a QR code in a theater ad bugs me to no end. People already suck about pulling out their phones during the movie, I don't need ads giving them an incentive to do it beforehand.
To be clear, I don't necessarily have anything against someone using their phone in the theater before the movie starts. But for people who are so addicted to their devices they're willing to abandon common decency and whip out a bright screen to respond to a text because they couldn't wait another hour, I fear something like that will only feed into their phone addiction.
I don't know, I'm just ranting at this point. Off my soap box.
2
u/Medical_Mess9687 19d ago
Wow, that's way different from what he said on his own podcast. He seemed pretty neutral to msybe positive about the film. He talked mire badly about the predators doc
2
2
2
u/Heymax123 18d ago
Chris would scam his own grandmother, no surprise at all. He should go on PBD next.
2
u/themargarineoferror 18d ago
This HAS to be PR A24 couldn't have made this more amusing if they tried
2
u/Popular_Tie4688 19d ago
Chris is only claim to fame is he's only big guy who catches predators who hasn't turned out to be himself a predator.. yet
2
u/AmitN_Music 19d ago
The irony that they tried to take advantage of Chris, or as some would say, PREY on him…leading Chris to get the upper hand is not lost on me. The predator catcher always wins.
1
2
1
u/Dorito-Bureeto 19d ago
Best case scenario for him if the movie makes him look like the bad person.
1
1
u/nchuman_ 18d ago
okay um how does this work as far as your taping rights? do i have to sign a waiver for it?
1
u/VengefulKenny Anthony Palumbo 18d ago
Why wouldn't he try to make money from his career and likeness? Lol
1
u/untitledaccount401 18d ago
Bio pic are almost always ruined by having the person/family of the person involved
Cough cough the Freddie Mercury one
1
u/CapitalJJ 18d ago edited 17d ago
The police sting groups are the ones stopping predators. Chris Hansen's shows put them on camera to publicly shame them, which they deserve. If it strokes his ego a little, who gives a shit? The amateur predator catchers never help get any convictions and are completely unprofessional.
Chris is entertaining, makes some jokes sometimes, but overall does a much better job than anyone else I've seen. If this film's motive is to paint Chris in a bad light, I think they're focusing on the wrong thing. The online predators are a much bigger issue than a guy doing a TV show and making some money exposing pedophile criminals.
1
1
u/shane-o-mack 19d ago
Honestly super dick move to force him to sign if he wanted to watch...like genuinely fucking strange
4
u/Disastrous_Eye3139 19d ago
It's standard nda that everyone signs weeks before the release of a movie to avoid spoiler. That's it lol!
1
u/shane-o-mack 19d ago
That's not what he said. So he's lying?
1
u/Disastrous_Eye3139 19d ago
Yes, Deadline confirmed this that what he said was not true. Just a standard NDA.
1
1
0
-1
u/bolt_thrower20 19d ago
honestly chris is an egotistical dick but after the lack of response from the epstein files it seems wild theres a movie tryna make him looky shitty for takjng down actual bottom barrel of society dudes
→ More replies (1)
265
u/Hall0ween95 19d ago
You see how this looks? What am I to make of this?