“Sextortion: A Chris Hansen Investigation” follows four families affected by online blackmail and is being offered free to viewers, schools, networks and other institutions.

Veteran investigative journalist Chris Hansen and the TruBlu Factual Streaming Network have released a new documentary examining the growing threat of online sextortion targeting children and teenagers.

The 50-minute special, “Sextortion: A Chris Hansen Investigation,” became available August 21, 2026, and can be streamed free without a membership through the TruBlu streaming service. TruBlu is also waiving licensing fees for television networks, streaming platforms, school districts and other institutions that want to show the documentary as part of a child-safety or awareness program.

The film examines four cases involving young people who died by suicide after being manipulated, threatened and blackmailed by online offenders. Developed over more than two years, the documentary follows the victims’ families and explores how criminals—sometimes working through overseas networks—can identify and pressure young people within hours.

“The purpose of this special is to get it in front of as many kids and parents as possible before another family gets the call no parent should ever get,” Hansen said in the release announcing the film.

What Is Sextortion?

Sextortion is a form of online exploitation in which an offender threatens to distribute real or fabricated sexual images unless the victim provides money, additional images or sexual activity. Offenders may pose as another young person, gain a victim’s trust and then quickly turn the interaction into a campaign of threats and demands.

Data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children underscores the scale of the problem. NCMEC says its CyberTipline received 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement in 2025, including more than 80,000 reports involving sextortion. The organization received an average of 137 reports of financial sextortion per day that year, a 37% increase from the previous year. NCMEC also says it is aware of at least three dozen teenage boys in the United States who have died by suicide after being targeted by financial sextortion.

Through the four families featured in the documentary, Hansen’s investigation looks beyond the numbers to show the emotional consequences of the crime. The special also considers how parents, schools, technology platforms and young people can recognize warning signs and intervene.

Hansen is best known for creating NBC’s To Catch a Predator, the hidden-camera investigative series that brought online child safety into mainstream public discussion. He later continued his reporting through programs including Crime Watch Daily, Hansen vs. Predator and TruBlu’s Takedown with Chris Hansen.

Where to Watch

“Sextortion: A Chris Hansen Investigation” is available free, with no membership required, at WatchTruBlu.com. TruBlu says organizations interested in airing the complete special may contact the network about free distribution.

Help and Reporting Resources

Children and families affected by sextortion should know that help is available and that victims are not to blame.

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• Suspected online child exploitation can be reported through NCMEC’s CyberTipline.
• NCMEC’s Take It Down service can help limit the online spread of intimate images taken before a person turned 18.
• Anyone experiencing emotional distress or a mental health crisis can call or text 988, or chat through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The service is available around the clock.
• If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

This news brief discusses suicide and the online sexual exploitation of children. Reader discretion is advised.

Source: TruBlu Factual Streaming Network press release, August 20, 2026; National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Related Links:

• Watch TruBlu
• NCMEC CyberTipline
• NCMEC Sextortion Information
• Take It Down
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

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For many television viewers, Eastlake, Ohio, may not have been a familiar name before Gordon Ramsay arrived in town. That changed when the Lake Erie community appeared on Kitchen Nightmares, with Ramsay attempting to rescue the struggling Golden Girls Restaurant.

The episode offered more than the familiar formula of disappointing food, frustrated owners and a dramatic restaurant makeover. It also briefly placed a national spotlight on Eastlake—a small Greater Cleveland city with a waterfront identity, a minor-league baseball team and a population of approximately 17,000 residents.

Unfortunately, the Golden Girls story did not end as viewers might have hoped.

Gordon Ramsay Comes to Eastlake

Golden Girls Restaurant was presented on Kitchen Nightmares as a neighborhood diner operated by two best friends who had become co-owners. According to the episode’s description, the restaurant was struggling with unappealing food and a local community that had lost confidence in the business.

Those problems made Golden Girls a natural candidate for Ramsay’s intervention. As he typically does on the program, the celebrity chef examined the restaurant’s food, kitchen practices, leadership and relationship with its customers.

Ramsay’s challenge was not simply to create a few improved dishes. He needed to help the owners restore consistency, rebuild trust and give Eastlake residents a reason to return.

The Golden Girls makeover reportedly took place in June 2025. That was more than a year before the episode reached television, creating an unusually long gap between Ramsay’s visit and the public broadcast.

Golden Girls Closed Before the Episode Aired

By the time television viewers watched Ramsay attempt to save Golden Girls, the restaurant had reportedly already closed.

The Eastlake diner shut its doors in January 2026, approximately six months after the Kitchen Nightmares makeover and several months before the episode aired. The result was a bittersweet viewing experience: audiences were watching a rescue effort whose ultimate outcome was already known locally.

Online reviews and community reactions reported by sites following the program suggest that Golden Girls continued to face problems after the makeover. However, the complete circumstances behind the closure have not been publicly documented in detail.

The restaurant’s fate illustrates an important reality frequently hidden behind the drama of restaurant-makeover television. A renovated dining room, simplified menu and burst of publicity cannot automatically resolve debt, staffing problems, ownership conflicts or years of lost customer confidence.

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Television can provide a second chance, but the restaurant must sustain the changes long after the cameras leave.

Where Is Eastlake, Ohio?

Eastlake sits in Lake County approximately 19 miles northeast of Cleveland. The city is part of the Greater Cleveland metropolitan area and occupies about 6.5 square miles near the Lake Erie shoreline.

The U.S. Census Bureau counted 17,670 residents in Eastlake during the 2020 census. Its July 2025 estimate placed the population at 17,357, representing a modest decline from 2020.

Eastlake’s geography is strongly connected to the water. The Chagrin River travels nearly 48 miles before emptying into Lake Erie at Eastlake. The river and nearby lakefront support boating, fishing, paddling, birdwatching and other recreational activities.

Chagrin River Park also has a western entrance in Eastlake, giving visitors access to trails and natural areas along the river corridor.

Although Eastlake is part of a large metropolitan region, it retains the atmosphere of a smaller, largely residential community. That setting helped make Golden Girls appear like the kind of locally rooted diner where regular customers, employees and owners often know one another personally.

When a restaurant loses the trust of such a community, repairing that relationship can be especially difficult.

Eastlake’s Baseball Connection

Golden Girls may have brought Eastlake to the attention of Kitchen Nightmares viewers, but the city’s most recognizable attraction is Classic Auto Group Park.

The ballpark is home to the Lake County Captains, the High-A minor-league affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. The stadium opened in 2003 and hosts baseball games, concerts, fundraisers and community events.

For residents and visitors, Captains baseball gives Eastlake a regional identity that extends beyond its residential neighborhoods. The team also connects the relatively small city directly to Northeast Ohio’s larger professional baseball culture.

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A City Connected to a Historic Blackout

Eastlake also holds an unexpected place in modern North American history.

The massive power blackout of August 14, 2003, began after problems developed within FirstEnergy’s Ohio transmission system. An Eastlake generating unit had gone offline earlier that day, although investigators determined that the cascading outage involved a more complicated combination of overloaded transmission lines, inadequate tree maintenance and failures in monitoring and alarm systems.

The blackout eventually affected an estimated 50 million people across portions of the United States and Canada.

It is a remarkable historical connection for a city that many Americans may otherwise know only as a Cleveland suburb—or now as the setting of a memorable Kitchen Nightmares episode.

More Than the Setting of a Television Episode

The Golden Girls episode may not have produced a lasting restaurant turnaround, but it introduced millions of viewers to a community they might never have encountered otherwise.

Behind the televised kitchen problems is a real city shaped by Lake Erie, the Chagrin River, neighborhood businesses and summer nights at the ballpark. Eastlake represents the kind of smaller American community where independent restaurants can become gathering places—and where their closure can leave a noticeable gap.

Golden Girls is gone, but its appearance on Kitchen Nightmares has given the restaurant an unusual afterlife. Viewers discovering the episode will continue searching for the diner, wondering whether it survived and, in the process, learning a little more about Eastlake itself.

For some viewers—including this writer—that simple mention on a television program was enough to put a previously unfamiliar Ohio city on the map.

Sources and Related Links

• U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Eastlake, Ohio
• City of Eastlake
• Lake County Captains and Classic Auto Group Park
• Chagrin River — Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
• Chagrin River Park — Lake Metroparks
• Season 10 restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares
• Golden Girls post-show update

Hungry for more? Visit the STM Daily News Food & Drink page for restaurant news, delicious recipes, food trends and the stories behind what we eat. Explore more Food & Drink articles today!

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The first-of-its-kind licensed Jason Universe experience will bring the “Friday the 13th” slasher to haunted attractions in Phoenix and eight other U.S. cities.

Horror fans may want to keep their flashlights close this Halloween. Jason Voorhees is leaving Crystal Lake and stepping into the world of live haunted entertainment.

Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group has partnered with Horror, Inc. to launch “Jason Universe: Survive the Night,”an officially licensed walkthrough attraction inspired by the Friday the 13th franchise. A separate, limited-capacity interactive experience called “Jason Universe: Director’s Cut” will allow guests to influence how part of the terrifying encounter unfolds.

The experiences are scheduled to appear during the 2026 Halloween season at select Thirteenth Floor attractions in Denver, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, Green Bay, Minneapolis, New Orleans and Nashville.

For Arizona horror fans, the inclusion of Phoenix means one of cinema’s most recognizable masked villains will be lurking close to home this fall.

Surviving a Night With Jason

“Jason Universe: Survive the Night” places visitors inside a dark, suspense-filled environment in which Jason can appear around virtually any corner. According to the attraction’s description, guests will try to make it through the night while the seemingly unstoppable slasher stalks them through the maze.

The experience promises close encounters with Jason’s battered hockey mask, relentless pursuit and the unsettling feeling that, no matter where guests turn, he is already waiting for them.

Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group says the collaboration is the first licensed Jason Universe haunted attraction of its kind. It combines the mythology and visual identity of Friday the 13th with the company’s large-scale sets, performers and immersive haunted-house production.

Guests Can Direct Jason’s Next Attack

The most unusual part of the attraction may be “Jason Universe: Director’s Cut,” an optional experience with extremely limited nightly availability.

Inside a rustic cabin, a camp counselor leads a small group to a control station featuring four choices: Panic, Slash, Strike and Stalk. Guests select how Jason will attack next, temporarily placing them in the director’s chair and giving them a hand in determining how the scene plays out.

The people inside the cabin may control one moment, but the attraction warns that Jason remains in charge of the rest of the night. Participants will receive a limited-edition “Jason Universe: Director’s Cut” patch as a collectible.

Chris Stafford, CEO and founding partner of Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, said the collaboration grew from conversations about creating a Jason experience unlike anything fans had encountered before.

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“We found an opportunity not only to bring the Jason Universe brand to guests across our attractions, but to create a first-of-its-kind licensed Jason Universe attraction that gives fans the opportunity to partake in an additional experience and choose their ending,” Stafford said in the announcement.

Robbie Barsamian, executive vice president at Horror, Inc., said the company has been looking for new ways to bring Jason to audiences through games, online projects and real-world experiences.

More Than Four Decades of Horror History

The original Friday the 13th opened in theaters in 1980 and helped establish the summer-camp slasher as a horror staple. Although Jason Voorhees was not yet the hockey-mask-wearing killer audiences would later recognize, the character eventually became the franchise’s defining figure.

Across sequels, television, games, comics, collectibles and Halloween costumes, Jason’s mask and machete became enduring symbols of the genre. The franchise ultimately expanded to 12 films, while Jason developed into one of horror’s most recognizable pop-culture characters.

Horror, Inc. launched the broader Jason Universe initiative in 2024 as a home for new projects connected to the franchise. Those projects include Crystal Lake, an upcoming television prequel series from A24.

The partnership with Thirteenth Floor represents another step in that expansion, transforming Jason from an on-screen threat into a physical presence that fans can encounter—and, for a moment, direct.

Tickets and Availability

Dates, participating venues, ticket prices and availability will vary by city. The “Director’s Cut” upgrade will have limited capacity each night, so interested fans may want to check availability early.

Additional information is available at ThirteenthFloor.com. Fans can also follow developments across the franchise at JasonUniverse.com.

This article is based on information provided by Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group. Attraction details and availability are subject to change.

Source: Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, press release dated August 20, 2026.

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Related Links

• Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group
• Jason Universe official website
• Official press release

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