Lenses Trained on Dueling Hidden Camera Shows

On March 21, NBC’s “Dateline” will debut a new Chris Hansen-anchored series called, “What Were They Thinking.” But ABC News insiders already see a similarity to their series, “What Would You Do?”

The Dateline “experiment,” as it’s called, uses hidden-cameras to “show you how we’re hardwired to do things and believe things, even when we know deep inside we shouldn’t.”

For ABC’s “What Would You Do?” series, correspondent John Quiñones files reports that “test human nature through hidden camera scenarios.”

What’s more: a producer from ABC’s “What Would You Do?” is now producing NBC’s “What Were They Thinking” series for “Dateline.”

Here’s the “Dateline” promo and a clip from ABC’s show. You be the judge:

Neither network is the first to invent the “intriguing candid-camera style social experiment,” and to be completely fair, neither “Dateline” nor ABC News will admit to using this for their ideas:

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