To Catch a Predator

To Catch a Predator was a recurring investigative segment on NBC’s Dateline NBC, reported by Chris Hansen and first broadcast in November 2004. The series examined adult men who used internet chat rooms and other online services to seek sexual contact with people they believed were underage. Its stings were organized with Perverted Justice, a watchdog group whose adult decoys posed online as minors. After conversations arranged a meeting, suspects were directed to a house equipped with concealed cameras.

Inside, an adult decoy would briefly meet the visitor, often maintaining the age and identity used in the chats. Hansen then emerged and questioned the man about the online exchanges. Footage commonly included chat logs, the visitor’s reaction, and comments by Hansen, such as asking why the person had come to the house. Local police officers subsequently arrested many of the participants after they left the premises. The broadcasts identified suspects and followed cases through charging and court outcomes, though those outcomes varied by jurisdiction.

The format became one of Dateline’s most recognizable franchises and produced multiple specials filmed in locations including New York, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, California, Texas, and New Jersey. The investigation in Murphy, Texas, recorded in 2006, became its most consequential controversy. Assistant district attorney Louis “Bill” Conradt was contacted by police after he allegedly communicated with a decoy and agreed to meet. On November 5, 2006, Conradt died by suicide as officers sought to serve a warrant at his home; a television crew was nearby for the production.

NBC canceled the segment in 2007, after the Conradt episode and litigation that challenged aspects of the operation. Conradt’s sister, Patricia Conradt, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against NBC Universal and others; NBC Universal settled the case in 2008 for an undisclosed amount. A separate lawsuit by former prosecutor and judge David Kaye against NBC Universal was dismissed in 2010. Although the program attracted large audiences and intensified public discussion of online child exploitation, it also drew criticism over its collaboration with Perverted Justice, the public exposure of unconvicted suspects, and the consequences of producing arrests for television.

Hansen later revived elements of the premise independently in the web series Hansen vs. Predator, launched in 2016. That program retained confrontation interviews and decoy-based investigations, but To Catch a Predator remains specifically associated with Dateline NBC’s original 2004–2007 run and its partnership with Perverted Justice. That legacy remains tied to impact and controversy.