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“Primetime” dives into the world of “To Catch a Predator,” but how accurate is it really? From the chilling sting operations to behind-the-scenes drama, we break down what the film got right and wrong about Chris Hansen, the crew, and the show's most infamous moments. Join us as we sift fact from fiction in this deep look at one of TV’s most controversial investigative shows.
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00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at details that Primetime got factually right and wrong about To Catch
00:07a Predator.
00:08It's totally made up, you know, it's totally made up, and that's, you know, that's the part of this that
00:13the public needs to know is that this is a work of fiction.
00:17Number 10, How They Caught Predators, Right.
00:21Primetime takes its fair share of liberties with what happened behind the scenes of To Catch a Predator.
00:26In terms of the show's general production, though, the film faithfully reenacts how most episodes were executed.
00:32So you are playing a 13-year-old?
00:35Is there time for a rehearsal?
00:36We're going to shoot the rehearsal.
00:38Come in!
00:39Volunteers would pretend to be minors in online chat rooms, drawing out potential predators.
00:45Those who took the bait were directed to sting houses with hidden microphones and cameras.
00:50There, they'd meet a, quote, decoy, an adult posing as a child.
00:55Eventually, Chris Hansen would emerge, often with a clipboard and a transcript he'd proceed to read in disturbing detail.
01:02You're going to want to talk to me.
01:03I'm sorry.
01:03Trust me on this.
01:04Now, you work at Nickelodeon, huh?
01:06No.
01:06You don't.
01:07What's your name?
01:08Police weren't part of the show's formula during its first two installments.
01:12By the third, however, law enforcement started making arrests on site, breaking out the tasers for the criminals and the
01:19cameras.
01:20Police arrest him and try to keep him quiet.
01:25But Murray cannot seem to stop crying.
01:31I can't.
01:32I've got to get the choice back.
01:33Number 9.
01:35Andy Bender.
01:36Wrong.
01:36Look, uh, it's really nice to meet you, but am I in trouble?
01:42Oh, no.
01:43No, you're not.
01:44You're not in trouble.
01:45Merit Weaver plays Andy Bender, a producer who's just as obsessed with ratings as Robert Pattinson's Hansen.
01:52Where Hansen has a social life, Bender's world revolves around making To Catch a Predator a hit.
01:57As production begins to go off the rails, she considers an offer at ABC to work on What Would You
02:03Do?
02:03You have no plan.
02:05I have to put him on television.
02:06You're going to be so proud of me.
02:08I don't want to be a bad person.
02:10Bender is apparently the show's sole producer, taking on most of the responsibility.
02:15To Catch a Predator actually had several producers, including EP David Corvo and field producer Donna Griffo Johnson.
02:22Nobody named Andy Bender worked on the show, however.
02:25Although Andy is fictional, the real Hansen claims that one of his producers, quote,
02:30was so upset the other day because the trailer cast her in a negative light.
02:34In the early days, especially, it was a little bit hectic behind the scenes.
02:38But, you know, the producer never did anything inappropriate or untoward with one of the decoys.
02:45I never yelled at the producer that we need to find so many people or people of such stature.
02:50It just didn't happen.
02:51Why don't you have a seat and watch Ms. Mojo's 24-7 livestream?
02:55Scan the QR code on screen to join us live, whether or not it's prime time.
03:00Go ahead and take a seat.
03:01But I'm not going to do this.
03:02Take a seat right over there.
03:04Number 8.
03:05Xavier Von Erck's Involvement.
03:07Right.
03:07To lure out predators, the show teamed with Perverted Justice,
03:11a watchdog group Xavier Von Erck founded in 2002.
03:14Matthew Marr portrays Von Erck, who spends much of the film at a keyboard in a game of cat and
03:20mouse.
03:20The only thing that wasn't figured out was, like,
03:24what I wanted to do with the lines and what I could bring to it.
03:29While Perverted Justice had various volunteers,
03:32prime time depicts Von Erck as the primary vigilante behind the computer screen.
03:36That might not have been the case, but as the organization's figurehead,
03:40Von Erck was naturally involved in the show's sting operations.
03:43This included the one for district attorney Bill Conrad.
03:47He had two different chats with two different decoys online,
03:52and he never showed up at the sting house.
03:54This was in Murphy, Texas.
03:55He was an assistant district attorney in a neighboring county.
03:58According to the real Von Erck,
04:00a Perverted Justice member did engage with Conrad in a chat room.
04:03Von Erck also claimed Conrad attempted to erase one of his MySpace pages,
04:08although some outlets have questioned this.
04:11MySpace is actually working, you know, trying to play catch-up now
04:14with a staff that tries to eliminate predators from their services.
04:18But there's also other sites out there that are just as dangerous, such as LiveJournal.
04:22Number seven, the timing of Chris Hansen's reported affair.
04:26Wrong.
04:26As Hansen's professional career skyrockets, his home life collapses.
04:31Anna Faris plays Mary Joan Hansen, who suspects her husband is having an affair.
04:36He is, and the National Enquirer has the exclusive.
04:39They had hidden cameras following him around,
04:43and they caught footage of him going to her apartment,
04:47you know, a little frisky frisky, a little dinner dinner.
04:50Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in this story.
04:52The National Enquirer did break a story about Hansen
04:55allegedly having an affair with Kristen Cadell,
04:57a 30-year-old station intern turned reporter.
05:00However, the story broke in 2011.
05:03It was taken out of context,
05:05and much more was made of it than was worthy, I believe.
05:10Well, then in 2013, there was a photo that surfaced of the two of you kissing.
05:14By this point, To Catch a Predator had been over for almost four years.
05:18Primetime implies that the scandal broke alongside the Bill Conrad sting,
05:23which occurred in November 2006.
05:25As that operation reaches its climax, Chris gets a call from Mary Joan,
05:29who says the National Enquirer asked her for a quote.
05:32Given the timing, such a conversation wouldn't have happened during this tense moment.
05:37The lesson, I think, is that, at least for me,
05:40you have to make sure that you completely conduct yourself in the appropriate way,
05:44because if you do find yourself a little too much fun or hang out with people,
05:48maybe you shouldn't be hanging out,
05:49you create the opportunity for somebody to say something or do something.
05:53Number 6. Decoy Dan was caught off guard. Right.
05:57My name is Dan Plum.
05:59Do you know what you're auditioning for?
06:00Skylar Gisando stars as Dan Plum, or Decoy Dan, as Hanson dubs him.
06:05Plum is based on Dan Shrack.
06:07Despite the name change, Primetime gets several details about Decoy Dan right.
06:12For starters, he appeared in at least one Toys R Us commercial,
06:16loves musicals, and reportedly received $5,000 per shoot.
06:21Wanted a paycheck? Sure. Yep. Sign me up.
06:25I look young. And I think that was the...
06:29Okay. Perfect. That's what we need.
06:31Most notably, Dan didn't entirely comprehend what he was signing up for
06:35at his To Catch a Predator audition.
06:38Dan knew the gig was with Dateline,
06:40but he assumed that they were looking for actors to perform reenactments.
06:43A producer filled him in,
06:45but it wasn't until Dan started participating in Stings
06:48that the full nature of the job became clear.
06:50Shrack looks back with regrets,
06:52especially concerning the Bill Conrad episode.
06:55I don't like knowing that I could have been the last person
06:59that this guy had a conversation with
07:03outside of when police showed up.
07:08This was something I had started to pack up as nicely as I could
07:14and bury as far back as possible.
07:19Number 5. Chris Hansen's rivalry with Stone Phillips.
07:23Wrong.
07:23Primetime depicts Hansen as an opportunistic tabloid journalist,
07:27while fellow NBC personality Stone Phillips covers the important conflicts in the Middle East.
07:32There is late word tonight,
07:34it appears that the city of Basra has fallen
07:37and is now in the hands of coalition forces.
07:40Also tonight, a string of fresh explosions rocked Baghdad just before dawn,
07:44including one massive blast that shook the center of the city.
07:48While Hansen doesn't openly criticize Phillips,
07:50his eyes practically turn green with envy whenever he's on screen.
07:54When the two briefly cross paths,
07:56Phillips gives Hansen a backhanded compliment,
07:59saying that he could never do what he does.
08:01No such rivalry appears to have existed between them, though.
08:05Phillips actually defended To Catch a Predator
08:07when the show's practices were called into question,
08:09claiming this wasn't entrapment.
08:11I love the work that I do,
08:15the job that I have,
08:16the people I work with.
08:17They find a wonderful shop.
08:18It's also worth noting that while Hansen did become best known for To Catch a Predator,
08:23he did cover other stories concerning the September 11th attacks
08:27and investigations into Osama bin Laden.
08:30Is there a video camera pointed at the security pass-through or checkpoints
08:35that would record everybody who gets onto a plane there that day?
08:39You know, that's a good question, Matt.
08:41We were led to believe yesterday that in fact there was not,
08:44but we're going to have a briefing here in the next couple of hours
08:47with airport authorities as well as perhaps federal law enforcement.
08:51Number four.
08:51Chris Hansen covered slavery in India.
08:54Right.
08:55It is a crime that's difficult to see and even more difficult to stop.
08:59Discussing one of the reasons he takes such pride in his job,
09:02Hansen reflects on covering child slave labor in India a few years back.
09:06Although certain details of Hansen's flashback were likely heightened for dramatic effect,
09:11he did investigate the role this type of labor plays in India's silk trade.
09:15What we found was absolutely horrifying.
09:19Children as young as five years old.
09:21To an extent, one could argue that this helped pave the way for To Catch a Predator.
09:25Both involved exposing the endangerment of children using hidden cameras.
09:30When Larry King asked Hansen about the, quote,
09:32sneaky nature of his show, Hansen replied, quote,
09:35this was no different than using hidden cameras in Cambodia to expose sex trafficking of underage children
09:41and in India to expose child slave labor in the silk business.
09:45But it's not only the legendary temples of Angkor Wat that draw Dr. Albom to Cambodia.
09:50With our undercover cameras, we soon find out that, like thousands of other tourists,
09:56Dr. Albom is here for another purpose.
09:59Number three, the meeting with Jeff Zucker.
10:01Wrong.
10:02Hansen and Bender are called into a meeting with then-NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker,
10:07who outright tells them that he isn't a fan of To Catch a Predator.
10:11Zucker can't deny that their show is a certified hit, though,
10:14so he decides to put it up against Lost on Wednesdays.
10:17To Catch a Predator, 9 p.m. primetime.
10:20Gonna be bigger than Lost.
10:22Since the filmmakers cast Jeff Zucker as himself,
10:25you might assume the scene is drawn from real life.
10:28While Zucker was willing to play a version of himself,
10:31he told Variety, quote,
10:33the scene in which I play myself never happened.
10:35It's obviously a fictional scene.
10:37Hansen echoed this in another interview, saying, quote,
10:40it's totally fiction.
10:42We guess the scene got at least one thing right.
10:45NBC held onto Joey way longer than they should have.
10:49It all started when I got this new agent.
10:51This lady is a shark.
10:53And that means she's a good agent, not an actual shark.
10:57I know that.
10:59Yeah, I did too.
11:01Number 2.
11:01The Bill Conrad sting.
11:03Right.
11:04Although aspects may be dramatized,
11:06the Bill Conrad sting was to Catch a Predator at its most notorious.
11:10I want something that matters.
11:11No more bond savers.
11:13All in a whale.
11:14During an investigation in Murphy, Texas,
11:17perverted justice realized that they had made contact with Conrad,
11:20an assistant district attorney.
11:22They tried luring him to a sting house,
11:24but Conrad was a no-show.
11:26Dateline thus made an unprecedented move for it to Catch a Predator.
11:30Instead of having the predator come to them,
11:32the show went to his doorstep with the local authorities.
11:35Hansen reportedly said, quote,
11:47The host never got his interview with Conrad,
11:51who took his life as the police and news team arrived at his house,
11:54leading to a lawsuit and further questioning of the show's ethics.
11:58He is not a police officer.
11:59He's not a prosecuting attorney.
12:01They're running a TV show.
12:04And it looked more and more and more like
12:06somebody was being given carte blanche
12:09to come in and direct operations at the police department.
12:13Number 1.
12:14Chris Hansen's breakdown.
12:15Wrong.
12:16You know, my wife, other people I'm close with,
12:19my family seems to think it's a pretty good imitation.
12:22Now, it's overly dramatic,
12:23and he's saying things I never said and doing things I never did.
12:27Despite calling Robert Pattinson, quote,
12:30a great actor,
12:31Hansen took issue with his portrayal in primetime,
12:34at least based on trailers.
12:35The film depicts the host yelling at his crew,
12:38which Hansen and some of his colleagues say never happened.
12:41You know, I had a producer of mine call me the other day,
12:43and she was very upset.
12:45And I said, well, it's just a movie.
12:47You know, this is over in a period of time.
12:50And she said, no,
12:52they had your character yelling at your staff.
12:54You've never yelled at your staff in your life.
12:56Although Hansen comes off as slick on camera,
12:59primetime suggests that he was coming undone behind the scenes.
13:03At one point, the stress causes him to freeze
13:05while confronting a rabbi predator.
13:07During the Murphy, Texas investigation,
13:09Hansen is shown having a complete breakdown,
13:12refusing to participate when a predator arrives at the Stinghouse.
13:16There's no public record of this ever happening.
13:19It seems especially unlikely,
13:20since Hansen has always stood by his work on To Catch a Predator,
13:23even at its most controversial.
13:26You either embrace it and use it for all the good it can bring,
13:29or you spend time running away from it to do more mainstream things.
13:33So you embrace it.
13:34And you use that power and that energy
13:37to do really good stories,
13:41really good television, important media stuff.
13:43What did you think of primetime?
13:45Let us know in the comments.
13:46Let us know in the comments.
13:48All right.
13:49All right.
13:52We're done.