PARK CITY, Utah — On Nov. 5, 2006, police surrounded the home of Bill Conradt in Murphy, Texas. But this was no ordinary sting. Officers were joined by “Dateline NBC” reporter Chris Hansen and the camera crew of “To Catch A Predator.”
Conradt was a 56-year-old assistant district attorney, who was discovered by the popular investigative series trawling for sex with minors online.
As always, the controversial program used a “decoy” to lure him in. This time it was actor Dan Schrack, a 19-year-old who was pretending to be boy of 13. He first chatted with Conradt on the web, then spoke to him by phone in a childlike voice and invited the man to come over.
But Conradt decided not to drive to the home of the decoy, who used the fake name Will. So, the show broke with tradition and drove to Conradt’s own house with police and search and arrest warrants in tow.
When armed cops entered the dwelling, Conradt shot and killed himself.
“How does someone die in the production of a television show?,” WFAA-TV Dallas reporter Byron Harris asks in the harrowing new documentary “Predators,” which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
After the gunshot is heard on camera, host Hansen says, “Well, I mean, there’s going to be some controversy.”
More than that, it led to the dramatic collapse of an enormously influential show, the reverberations of which are still felt on real-life TV such as “The Jinx” and “Making A Murderer.”
The doc directed by David Osit depicts the meteoric rise, fall and strange internet rebound of the true-crime series, which aired from 2004 to 2007.
“To Catch A Predator” was praised by Oprah Winfrey and Jon Stewart and lampooned on “30 Rock.” America obsessed over it at the time, with some episodes being watched by as many as 10 million viewers. MSNBC reruns were some of that network’s highest-rated hours.
Today, however, many believe the TV hit was ethically fraught and behaved recklessly by combining justice with cheap entertainment. It also left scars for some of those who worked on it.
“You could offer me $10 million to film that episode in Texas again, and I wouldn’t take it,” Schrack said in the documentary. “I don’t like knowing I could’ve been the last person this guy had a conversation with.”
“To Catch A Predator” was created with the help of a watchdog group called Perverted Justice that worked to expose sexual predators online using methods similar to the TV show.
“Dateline” threw in real houses, cameras and embarrassing interviews with Hansen, who, after surprising the busted men, would typically begin with the prompt, “Help me understand.”
The show also employed decoys — actors who were 18 and older, but had a deceptively youthful appearance. To fans of the show, they became stars in their own right.
“I don’t think I had any idea how big this show was,” said one woman actor. “I’ll probably always be known in some universe as ‘the decoy.’”
The teen performers used their acting skills to coax the predators to reveal more information.
“The improv part was super important,” she said. “And my goal always was get them to expose themselves.”
Casey Mauro was recruited while the show was requesting the use of her family’s house to film in. Doing the deal, Mauro’s father also mentioned that his daughter Casey looks young for her age, and she got the gig.
“My job was truly ‘be a face,’” Mauro said, adding that producers would coach the decoys to take charge of the situation.
“You are God to them,” she recalled being told of the predators. “When you say ‘sit’ and point your finger, they will sit.”
For a while, Schrack believed in his part in the effort of busting sex offenders.
“It was kind of a cool gang that you’re in,” he said. “Making sure these bad guys don’t hurt any kids.”
However, he’s reevaluated that time of his life with age.
“I didn’t realize at the time how damaging it was emotionally and mentally… That’s a lot for someone to take in.”
As popular as “To Catch A Predator” was, there were red flags. A Texas police officer remembered Hansen taking an overactive role in criminal investigations.
“He’s not our boss,” she recalled saying as her colleagues snapped pictures with the personality. “He’s not a police officer, he’s not a prosecuting attorney.”
District attorney John Roach also uncovered frowned-upon actions by the police.
“We got into it and found that some policemen were wearing cameras,” he said. “To get an action-packed shot.”
Favoring ratings over by-the-book procedure turned deadly in Murphy, Texas. After Conradt’s suicide, the show aired just six more episodes — including the fatal one — and was canceled. Conradt’s sister sued NBC for $103 million, and the parties settled out of court.
Even though “To Catch A Predator” hasn’t aired new episodes on NBC in nearly 20 years, its legacy lives on, for better or worse.
Risk-taking amateur online predator hunters have been on the rise, luring sex pests to public places and chasing them while filming. One YouTuber named Skeeter Jean makes more professional-looking “To Catch”-like episodes and has accumulated 1.9 million subscribers.
And, starting last year, Hansen began hosting an updated version of his old show called “Takedown with Chris Hansen” on the TruBlu network.
“Who knew that at 65 years old, I would have three generations of followers?,” Hansen said.
