Sep 28, 2026 · 1 hr 58 min · 10 segments
Lance Oppenheim's 'Primetime' has been one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year, and Monika and Emily are both here to say that in their opinions, it did not disappoint. This episode covers…
Emily FayeHost
Monika ScottHost
It is from 2006 to 2007 when they were really trying to make the show, like, big, big, big.
And then they... went too big and a da shot himself on their cameras and then that sort of was the beginning of the end of the show
you can really only raise the stakes um okay i wrote i wrote one and i'm already like embarrassed that it's kind of long um okay here's here's my attempt um Lance Oppenheim's Primetime tells the true story of the rise and fall of To Catch a Predator, the wildly successful Dateline NBC series hosted by Chris Hansen.
The movie follows Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson, and his producer, Andy Bender, played by Merritt Weaver.
Hansen and Bender have gone from making a new segment to competing with the biggest show on television at the time.
At the same time, aspiring actor Dan Plum, played by Skylar Gazzando, is thrown into the deep end when he's hired to work as one of the show's decoys.
Dan is clearly disturbed by what he experiences, but he barely has time to process any of it before he develops a strange, almost father-son relationship with Hansen.
He stops thinking of To Catch a Predator as a television program and begins to believe that he is engaged in the larger crusade of purging the world of an ancient evil.
While Hansen becomes more obsessive and erratic, everything around him destabilizes.
His producer is being courted by other networks, and there's a threat of an expose in the National Enquirer of a recent affair he had.
Hanson nixes the show's plans for a shoot in New Jersey and moves everyone to Texas with no notice.
The team becomes fixated on one particular target that they refer to as the whale because they suspect he may be an important person in the community.
Bill Conrad is reluctant to meet the decoy in person, so Hansen decides to break from the show's usual formula and brings the whole operation directly to Conrad's house.
Hansen is stunned and in a particularly chilling moment, disappointed that he never got the interview.
It is from 2006 to 2007 when they were really trying to make the show, like, big, big, big.
And then they... went too big and a da shot himself on their cameras and then that sort of was the beginning of the end of the show
you can really only raise the stakes um okay i wrote i wrote one and i'm already like embarrassed that it's kind of long um okay here's here's my attempt um Lance Oppenheim's Primetime tells the true story of the rise and fall of To Catch a Predator, the wildly successful Dateline NBC series hosted by Chris Hansen.
The movie follows Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson, and his producer, Andy Bender, played by Merritt Weaver.
Hansen and Bender have gone from making a new segment to competing with the biggest show on television at the time.
At the same time, aspiring actor Dan Plum, played by Skylar Gazzando, is thrown into the deep end when he's hired to work as one of the show's decoys.
Dan is clearly disturbed by what he experiences, but he barely has time to process any of it before he develops a strange, almost father-son relationship with Hansen.
He stops thinking of To Catch a Predator as a television program and begins to believe that he is engaged in the larger crusade of purging the world of an ancient evil.
While Hansen becomes more obsessive and erratic, everything around him destabilizes.
His producer is being courted by other networks, and there's a threat of an expose in the National Enquirer of a recent affair he had.
Hanson nixes the show's plans for a shoot in New Jersey and moves everyone to Texas with no notice.
The team becomes fixated on one particular target that they refer to as the whale because they suspect he may be an important person in the community.
Bill Conrad is reluctant to meet the decoy in person, so Hansen decides to break from the show's usual formula and brings the whole operation directly to Conrad's house.
Hansen is stunned and in a particularly chilling moment, disappointed that he never got the interview.
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