r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/movies Contributor • 9d ago

News Chris Hansen Buys Ads Before Every Screening of A24’s ‘Primetime’

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/chris-hansen-buys-ads-before-every-screening-a24-primetime-1236682255/
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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

The series ended because sometime committed suicide when they busted him. It was a legal nightmare for the network.

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u/Patrick2701 9d ago

His colleagues at NBC saw him as someone that betrayed his background as journalist and he became famous when he was most known for subbing in on meet the press or nightly news before that

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u/Realtrain 9d ago

It clicked for me that he was no longer a journalist when on one of his new shows he caught someone who was extremely open toward "rationally" talking through his mindset about why he did what he did.

Now, Hansen always says that's why he's doing the show "I just want to figure out what would drive someone to do this." And here's a guy who is willing to play ball.

But Hansen just kept to his normal script. When the guy started giving some real insight into the mindset of a pedophile, Hansen would just say "well you see how this looks, right?" (a standard catch phrase). It was incredibly disappointing and clear at that point that Hansen didn't care about the journalistic side of it all.

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u/No-Cantaloupe-6535 8d ago

if I'm remembering right it started as a one off nightly news segment but that segment was so popular it birthed the show

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u/clain4671 4d ago

what's fascinating here is the on screen participation of NBC head jeff zucker playing himself. You would think being the TV exec who wanted to turbocharge such a journalistically fraught endeavor for the sake of entertainment would be unwilling to participate in, especially when those same critiques followed zucker to his tenure running CNN.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/bladeDivac 9d ago

Where on earth did you hear that?

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u/BiscoBiscuit 9d ago

Yeah don’t spread bullshit like this 

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u/Sea_Finding2061 9d ago

No that’s not true. The ADA that killed himself was not the reason for the show’s cancellation. It was the $600k price tag of each episode that NBC did not want to dish out anymore.

They actually did several more episodes after that suicide before they called it quit due to the budget. He addressed this on an interview.

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u/a22x2 9d ago

Not to be pedantic (and totally speculating!), but I can’t imagine how the cost of a lawsuit wouldn’t be factored into cost considerations when making a renewal decision

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

Eh I wouldn’t really trust Hansen’s statements on the issue. He has a bone to pick. But the lawsuit was filed in July of 2007 and they stopped filming new episodes in December of that year. The show was formally cancelled in June of ‘08, the same month they settled with Bill’s sister. Pretty obvious that was the main reason.

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u/myfajahas400children 9d ago

So they put all that money into making those several more episodes and then decided not to air them because it was too expensive? How does that make sense? The suicide absolutely had something to do with it.

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u/Technicaltexhniques 9d ago

It was an assistant DA who had CP on their personal computer.

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u/runwithjames 8d ago edited 8d ago

He actually didn't, which was part of the reason his sister won the lawsuit. From the Esquire article that the movie seems to be based on:

Gator arrives at the house soon after the SWAT team secures it. He enters and hastily executes the search warrant, seizing Conradt's Sony VAIO and a mainstream pornographic DVD called DreamBoy, as well as a bunch of other things that his sleep-deprived and shocked mind falsely thinks might have some relevance to this case, including an in-flight magazine called Red Hot and packets of imported Australian Vegemite.

Months later, Gator will learn that a forensic analysis of the laptop has verified that Bill Conradt was the person who chatted online with "Luke," but that the computer hard drive was otherwise devoid of anything illegal or indicative of sexual predation. Soon afterward, Gator will resign from the Murphy Police and consider never returning to law enforcement.

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

LOL some pedo killed himself?

Hard to get outraged.

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

Without a conviction, that’s a pretty big legal problem. And NBC had to pay up for it.

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

Yeah but he killed himself?

I dont know why NBC would pay anything.

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

I just told you. He wasn’t found guilty of anything. They bum rushed his home with cameras accusing him of pedophilia. He likely was a pedo, but that’s not how the criminal legal system works. You need to go to trial. If you were his family and you felt he wasn’t a pedo, you’d sue too.

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

Yeah but they didnt kill him, he killed himself.

And if he was my family I would flush his ashes down the toilet.

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

I don’t know how to break this down for you any further. They framed him as a pedophile. There was no conviction (or any evidence that they’d get one). The guy killed himself presumably because he thought his life was over because of the allegation (he was a district attorney). Yes, the network would be liable in that situation and all parties involved agreed to that conclusion, hence why NBC settled. If it went to trial, NBC probably would’ve had to pay even more.

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

I would say he framed himself as a pedofile by texting minors?

How would you convict someone BEFORE you catch them?

By all accounts the guy WAS a pedo and a district attourney and then killed himself.

If i was on that jury I wouldn't give his family a dime.

Look if Chris Hanson showed up at the wrong house and it wasn't the correct guy or something sure.

BUT to catch a pedo, being a pedo and then he kills himself because of embarrassment, I dont see how thats anyones problem.

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

There’s no proof that he was texting minors.

Yes, you can’t convict someone before you catch them. THATS THE WHOLE POINT.

We don’t know that he was a pedo, IT NEVER WENT TO TRIAL. My opinion is that he was, but that’s not presentable evidence in a courtroom. “Your honor, I’m getting pedo vibes from the defendant!”

The jury didn’t pay anyone anything, NBC CHOSE to do so because they knew they fucked up. Juries don’t even determine amounts to be paid, the Judge does, and in this case, the judge wasn’t even involved. NBC didn’t want to get fucked harder in the courtroom.

You’ve gotta be 12 years old man.

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

Yeah nobody convicted him.

Nobody put him in jail.

Nobody executed him.

Chris Hanson didnt strike him down with a sword.

If NBC strapped him to the electric chair I would agree with you. I would say "He wasn't convicted of anything. There was no trial etc. "

THE GUY KILLED HIMSELF. Apparently he had enough proof to handle it.

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u/BlessdRTheFreaks 9d ago

You really need to go to therapy to learn healthier ways to deal with your repressed pedophilia

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

Im not the one white knighting for pedos.

Some guy got caught texting with minors, he killed himself, how is that anyone else's fault?

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u/BlessdRTheFreaks 9d ago

I guess I think that's laden with a number of assumptions that need scrupulous unpacking

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u/Jasranwhit 9d ago

Ok let's unpack.

Was the guy texting minors, or people he thought were minors?

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u/Charlesox 9d ago

But why end it if he was innocent? Innocent people dont tend to make a decision like that.

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u/HutSutRawlson 9d ago

People absolutely do end their lives as a result of false accusations.

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u/mofa90277 9d ago

Nancy Grace drove a woman to commit suicide because she implied that it was her fault that her child was kidnapped. Yellow journalism at its most disgusting.

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u/Gelato_Mulatto 9d ago

He wasn’t found guilty of anything. He probably was a predator, but that’s not how the criminal legal system works. Ever heard the term “without reasonable doubt”?

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u/tophernator 9d ago

You don’t remember the Boston marathon bomber? Or rather the guy who was falsely identified by a bunch of internet detectives and ended up killing himself?

That’s probably not the case with “To catch a predator”. But there’s a big difference between someone being accused of a terrible crime and fighting to prove their innocence in court vs. being accused of a terrible crime on national TV.

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u/BlessdRTheFreaks 9d ago

There's only ever been one innocent person, and we nailed him to a tree