Chris Hansen may have found a legal goldmine, but he is leaving the pickaxe behind. The former To Catch a Predator host has been outspoken about A24’s Primetime, after being turned away from a screening for refusing a restrictive legal agreement and having no say in Robert Pattinson’s portrayal. Hansen claims a legal battle could bring him quite a lot.

Despite saying a lawsuit could be lucrative, Chris Hansen revealed why he chose to hold back taking Primetime to court.

Chris Hansen is keeping the door to legal action against A24’s Primetime open, even if he is not exactly rushing through it, as seen in his talk with Dan Abrams on his YouTube channel. The former To Catch a Predator host said someone he knows who is deeply entrenched in entertainment law believes he could have “a decent case.” Hansen, however, sees a potential lawsuit as a complicated proposition.

“You know, you can do that, and you probably have a decent case. How much time do you want to spend doing it?” a person who Chris Hansen knew said to him. Hansen said he received it from someone he knows who is highly experienced in entertainment law. The question, rather neatly, gets to the heart of Hansen’s hesitation over taking action.

For Hansen, the bigger concern is that fighting Primetime too loudly could accidentally become its best publicity campaign. He pointed out to Dan Abrams that the thriller is a film he has not even seen, making it difficult to fully judge the portrayal at its center. Still, Chris Hansen described the project as feeling exploitative, sneaky, and disingenuous.

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As Chris Hansen weighs in on Primetime and the actor portraying him, it is worth separating A24’s fiction from the facts.

A24’s Chris Hansen is practically a different species from the man who actually hosted To Catch a Predator. In Primetime, Robert Pattinson plays a darker, more intense figure whose pursuit of television success and ratings becomes part of the drama. The real Chris Hansen, however, describes himself as an investigative journalist whose work centered on exposing predators and protecting minors.

That distinction becomes especially striking in the dialogue, motivations, and overall temperament given to A24’s version of Hansen. Chris Hansen has pointed out that some of Robert Pattinson’s aggressive lines never happened, while the real investigations were coordinated with law enforcement and legal teams. Ultimately, Primetime offers a stylized Hollywood interpretation, leaving audiences to decide how closely it resembles the real man.

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