TV Show Catches Cheaters in the Act

D A L L A S, Dec. 6 -- When Kristen Cone worried about her husband coming home late, the young mother acted on her suspicions in a novel way: she dialed up the producers of the new TV show Cheaters and said she had a job for them.

Private investigators working for the show trailed her husband, armed with tiny cameras and sometimes hiding in bushes, to see what he was up to. They caught him — multiple times — in moments of passion with another woman.

After showing the damning evidence to the wife, the show's producers arranged an on-air confrontation and got the results they were looking for: the wife ambushed her straying husband and his lady friend in the lobby of a hotel.

"Is this who you were with when Braden was screaming for formula?" Cone demanded when she saw her husband. Braden is the couple's infant son.

Cone ended up terminating what was once a happy marriage. She is about to become a single mother, caring for a 2-year-old daughter as well as Braden, who is 8 months old.

But she has no regrets about exposing her husband's indiscretions. "I don't feel sorry for him that he was on TV at all, because for me it was just as humiliating to sit there and have my friends say, 'Is he coming home tonight?'" she said.

And she does not regret going on the show. "I left knowing the truth," she said.

50 Episodes and Counting

There is clearly an appetite among viewers for this kind of television. Cheaters can be seen in nearly 200 cities in America. The show's producers have made about 50 episodes so far, and TV stations are signing up for more.

The show's creator, Dallas attorney Bobby Goldstein, said he gets 4,000 requests a month from people — men as well as women — who want their loved ones spied on.

One episode features a young man who discovers that his fiancée has taken up with another woman. "We are equal opportunity snoops," said Goldstein. "We want to paint the canvas with as much of a cross-section of life as we can possibly present in this show."