Press & broadcasting
Chris Hansen
born 1959 · television journalist, presenter
Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator host, who grew up in the Detroit suburbs and learned investigative reporting at WXYZ and WDIV.
- Born
Chicago, Illinois
age 67- Birth name
- Christopher Edward Hansen
- Also known as
- The Predator Hunter
- Detroit years
- 1960s–1993
- Field
- Press & broadcasting
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Chicago, Hansen grew up in West Bloomfield Township and Birmingham, north of Detroit, and attended Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Hills before studying telecommunication at Michigan State. After starting out at WILX in Lansing and working in Tampa, he reported for WXYZ in Detroit and in 1988 was hired as an investigative reporter and anchor at WDIV, Channel 4. He joined NBC News in 1993 and became a Dateline correspondent, best known for the sting series To Catch a Predator (2004–2007). He later hosted Killer Instinct, Crime Watch Daily and his own streaming projects, and has won ten Emmy Awards. The 2026 film Primetime, with Robert Pattinson as Hansen, dramatizes his Predator years.
Highlights
- Host of Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator (2004–2007)
- Investigative reporter and anchor at WDIV Detroit from 1988
- Earlier reporter for WXYZ-TV
- Ten Emmy Awards
- Grew up in West Bloomfield and Birmingham; Brother Rice High School
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1988–1993
WDIV-TV Channel 4 studios
Channel 4, where he was an investigative reporter and anchor before NBC News.