Changes

==Career with NBC and ''To Catch a Predator''==

==Career with NBC and ''To Catch a Predator''==

Hansen spent the first 12 years of his career with NBC reporting on local news in Michigan, where he spent much of his life growing up and earned his degree in telecommunications, and briefly in Florida. In 1993, he joined NBC's ''Dateline'' programming block.

Hansen spent the first 12 years of his career with NBC reporting on local news in Michigan, where he spent much of his life growing up and earned his degree in telecommunications, and briefly in Florida. In 1989, he married his first wife Mary Joan, with whom he has since had two sons, Chase and Connor. In 1993, he joined NBC's ''Dateline'' programming block.

Hansen rose to prominence later in his NBC career as the host of ''To Catch a [[Predator]]'' (2004-2008), a series of reports serving as part of the ''Crime Watch Daily'' segment of ''Dateline''. Hansen he worked with the agency Perverted-Justice (who received consulting fees from NBC) to create decoy online chatroom profiles impersonating underage teens (typically aged 12-13 years) and engaging in sexually charged conversations with adults. These men made dates for sex with the decoys, only to arrive at sting houses and be confronted by Hansen before being sent out for their arrests. The series ran for a total of 20 episodes spanning two seasons and covered 12 sting operations across the United States. While the earliest stings caught dozens of predators, the number declined due to the show's growing popularity and would-be predators becoming better at identifying the fake profiles. Consequently, the last sting only caught seven predators.

Hansen rose to prominence later in his NBC career as the host of ''To Catch a [[Predator]]'' (2004-2008), a series of reports serving as part of the ''Crime Watch Daily'' segment of ''Dateline''. Hansen he worked with the agency Perverted-Justice (who received consulting fees from NBC) to create decoy online chatroom profiles impersonating underage teens (typically aged 12-13 years) and engaging in sexually charged conversations with adults. These men made dates for sex with the decoys, only to arrive at sting houses and be confronted by Hansen before being sent out for their arrests. The series ran for a total of 20 episodes spanning two seasons and covered 12 sting operations across the United States. While the earliest stings caught dozens of predators, the number declined due to the show's growing popularity and would-be predators becoming better at identifying the fake profiles. Consequently, the last sting only caught seven predators.

In 2020, Hansen co-founded the true crime [[streaming]] service TruBlu, where he became the host of ''Takedown with Chris Hansen'', which once again finds him investigating and interviewing online predators, this time one per episode. Working independently gave him greater creative control, allowing him to work more directly with local law enforcement and use uncensored [[profanity]]. The series has so far run for four seasons totaling 38 episodes.

In 2020, Hansen co-founded the true crime [[streaming]] service TruBlu, where he became the host of ''Takedown with Chris Hansen'', which once again finds him investigating and interviewing online predators, this time one per episode. Working independently gave him greater creative control, allowing him to work more directly with local law enforcement and use uncensored [[profanity]]. The series has so far run for four seasons totaling 38 episodes.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Chris}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Chris}}

[[Category:Journalists]]

[[Category:Journalists]]