Biography

March 26, 1959 · Lansing, Michigan, USA

Christopher Edward Hansen

1.88 m

Catchphrase: "Have a seat right over there."

Hansen has stated that what inspired him to want to become a journalist was when he was 14, Jimmy Hoffa was kidnapped in a restaurant less than two miles away from where he lived and he would ride his bicycle to the crime scene and watch the police and FBI working on Hoffa's disappearance and the reporters covering the big story - watching all of this had a profound effect on him.

Has a new show, a spin-off from his hit show To Catch a Predator (2004), titled Hansen vs Predator and it will air its first episode on September 12, 2016, on the television show Crime Watch Daily (2015).

Attended Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield, MI, class of 1977.

Hansen tampered evidence related to the Gregory Jackson investigation.

His YouTube channel targeted other YouTubers by using YouTube's copyright policy, even though Hansen doesn't own To Catch a Predator (2004). Hansen and his colleagues would also target YouTube videos unrelated to catching child predators.

Why don't you take a seat over there?

I am Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, and we are doing a story on adults meeting young teens online for sex.

[on his inspiration for going into journalism]

When I was 14 years old, Jimmy Hoffa was kidnapped from a restaurant, the Red Fox, that was about 1 and 1/2 miles up the street from where I lived. I used to ride my bike up there and the FBI was up there and it was a crime scene and there were local police and local news reporters; I got bit by the bug watching that.

[on how the concept of To Catch a Predator originated]

It was my idea. I was on the phone talking to a friend of mine who was a reporter in Detroit, Kevin Dietz. He was telling me about this online watchdog group called Perverted Justice and I was thinking, 'Wow, if we could combine their ability to work as decoys in chat rooms and our ability to wire a house with hidden cameras and microphones, it could be pretty compelling.' A lot of other smart people weighed in and figured out ways to improve the concept and we went out and shot the first one in Long Island.