TV: Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator

[shant]

To Catch a Predator: MSNBC Site

Is anyone watching these? The past two Wedneday nights have been devoted to these hour long specials. They are definitely the creepiest a TV shows I've watched in a while, but are full of LOL moments.

Here's a quick synopsis. They set up decoys to chat with men looking to have sex with underage girls/boys. They then set up a meet with the men, and have a decoy house setup with hidden cameras all over. The guys come up to the house, park, come in and see a decoy girl/boy. The decoy tells them to wait in a room, where the Dateline host guy walks out and confronts them. They either run off or talk with him about what they're planning on doing with the girl/boy. The host guy even reads chat logs they had with the minor which is really awkward and embarassing. Then when they're done getting info from the guy, they send them outside to be arrested by local sheriffs.

A couple highlights from tonight:

- A guy shows up and he's not a midget, but he's under 5 ft tall. They find out he is going to jail in a week for soliciting a minor for sex, and he was trying to have sex with a kid before going into jail for a year. The best part is his screen name is "changesforthebetter2006."

- They have some really straight-laced dude reading the chat logs while they show transcripts on screen. When they get to an "lol" in the chat, he says "laugh out loud" in a really robotic way.

- One guy is already naked and starting to rub himself as the host walks in to greet him.

One thing I find weird about this show is all the guys' faces are on camera and none are blurred? Do these guys actually sign a release to let them use their face? Is their a law that once they commit a crime they lose their right to this waiver deal? There was a shot on the show of multiple guys in jail, but only the guy who had been featured on the show earlier was unblurred. These guys can't be stupid enough to sign the waiver and some of them openly worry about their jobs when they find out this is part of a Dateline show.

Just a heads up, next week at Wednesday will be the 3rd Wednesday in a row that they show this. I already have mine set to Tivo. The preview had another guy already naked by the time the host walks in and a guy who was showing up to meet a young boy for sex and brought his 5 year old son with him. WTF.