Primetime: What Really Happened To How To Catch A Predator

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Let's go to the How to Catch a Predator trailer starring Robert Pattinson.

[00:00:07]I'm here for this.

[00:00:09]Shout to Chris Hansen.

[00:00:11]Shout to Chris Hansen. I'm here for this. Let's check this out, shall we?

[00:00:15]Let's go.

[00:00:17]>> Come on in.

[00:00:19]>> What would have happened if I wasn't here?

[00:00:24]>> You know what? I'm I'm going to have to change my mind on A24. Um >> [sighs] >> A24 can do whatever they want and it's going to it's going to bang out. I can't even be mad. I can no longer be mad at A24 right now.

[00:00:39]Between A24, Neon, couple other somewhat semi-indie studios, I can't be mad. Let's go.

[00:00:48]>> You see how this looks.

[00:00:50]Right.

[00:00:54]At the end of the day, man must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes.

[00:01:03]Do you agree?

[00:01:07]Do you watch television?

[00:01:11]Well, there's something you should know.

[00:01:15]I'm Chris Hansen.

[00:01:17]>> Catch us predators.

[00:01:18]>> I'm on NBC.

[00:01:22]And you're about to be a part of television history.

[00:01:28]>> Wow.

[00:01:30]>> How can it be the number one show on TV?

[00:01:34]>> Now, if you remember, this show was canceled because one of the perps they caught, I believe, was a sheriff or a or an attorney.

[00:01:43]This looks good. I will definitely be looking forward to to this.

[00:01:47]The show was canceled in 2008 following the self-deletion of Rockwall County, Texas assistant district attorney Bill Conrad As police attempted to serve him with a search warrant after he had been caught talking to and exchanging pictures with a perverted justice uh volunteer posing as a 13-year-old boy. That's why they canceled it. Because this guy took himself out. Assistant District Attorney.

[00:02:22]Although this has not been confirmed as the reason for the cancellation, many have linked the timing of Conrad's death to the ending of the show.

[00:02:31]The District Attorney from Dallas-Fort Worth had been talking to and exchanging pictures with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old boy. He was one of more than a than two dozen men lured to a house in Murphy, Texas during a sting operation for How to Catch a Predator.

[00:02:45]When he did not actually go to the house, police police arrived at his home with a warrant for his arrest. Police arrived on the scene with Dateline cameras, and Conrad died by his own hand within 60 minutes of shooting himself upon their arrival.

[00:03:00]>> [clears throat] >> Despite the controversy, Chris Hansen has insisted that the show just ended because it ran its course after 3 years on the air. No, sir.

[00:03:09]No, sir. That's not That's not how that works. At the end of the day, we had proved our point. Conrad was airlifted to an hospital in Dallas, but was pronounced dead upon arrival. They went over there and did that at that house because it would do something for the show, not something for society. Not something in the interest of law enforcement.

[00:03:28]And the role that I played in it, that's the state of my soul that I'm going to I'm going to live with if I'm any kind of a human being at all. I could have shut that thing down, at least that part of it, just simply by walking out the back door and going to see somebody.

[00:03:45]Conrad's sister filed a $109 million a wrongful death lawsuit against NBC, and they settled out of court.

[00:03:53]"The matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties," her lawyer said. Wow.

[00:04:00]Wow.

[00:04:03]Wow.

[00:04:06]That's crazy.