Chris Hansen Purchases Theater Ads Ahead of A24's "Primetime" Screenings

Chris Hansen, the former host of "To Catch a Predator," has bought advertising slots that will run for four weeks in movie theater lobbies before screenings of A24's thriller "Primetime." The ads promote TruBlu, Hansen's true-crime streaming network that continues his sting investigations. > "We see it as an opportunity to reach a very concentrated group of people who either know Chris or are going to know some version of Chris," TruBlu President Shawn Rech told Entertainment Weekly. > "A lot of people, because we’re a small network, don’t know that he has done hundreds of new episodes, working in partnership with law enforcement," Rech added. The campaign will be renewed if the film performs well at the box office. Hansen confirmed he was invited to a private screening but declined to sign a standard non-disclosure agreement that would have limited his rights to his name, image and brand, and therefore did not attend. "The lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie," Hansen said on Fox News. "I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there." "Primetime," set to open on September 25, dramatizes Hansen's role in the original "To Catch a Predator" series, which aired from 2004 to 2007.