This TV sting show focuses on catching Internet predators in the act of illegal conduct with minors. The show hires actors and investigators to go online and pretend to be underage adolescents. The online predator is then invited to a setup house filled with cameras. The actress who plays the underage adolescent invites the culprit into the house and then disappears into another room. A camera crew and the program's host show up to confront the person. After chatting, the person leaves and is then usually arrested by the police.
Helping behind the scenes during the show is an organization known as Perverted Justice, whose purpose is to seek out online predators. According to the organization's website, although the main focus was once on chat rooms; it has since shifted to social networks. As of 2011, the organization claims to have banished more than 10,000 Myspace sex offenders from the site since 2007; it also claims to have banished 2,800 from Facebook since 2008.
Although no similar shows from MSNBC have captured the imagination of audiences like "To Catch a Predator," a number of copycat shows have sprung up. Shows such as "To Catch a Car Thief" and "To Catch a Con Man" also premiered on the network; however, each was a short-lived enterprise.
The host of the sting show --- who also later hosted "To Catch an ID Thief," a short-run show on identity theft --- began his career with NBC in 1993. He started as a correspondent for Tom Brokaw and eventually moved up to hosting his own show. In 2011, Hansen was alleged to have been caught in a cheating scandal via hidden cameras in Florida.