Obama to Appear on 'America's Most Wanted' to Mark Show's Anniversary

LOS ANGELES -- President Obama will make an appearance Saturday on Fox's "America's Most Wanted," helping to celebrate the broadcast of its 1,000th episode.

The show has helped capture more than 1,100 fugitives and reunited 43 missing children with their families, according to show's host, John Walsh.

Walsh will interview Obama on the episode airing 9 p.m. ET. The president will discuss the show's impact in its 22 years as well as his administration's anti-crime initiatives, including those involving white-collar crime, Fox said Wednesday.

Walsh told Fox News Thursday that he spoke to the president about John Gardner, the sex offender suspected in the disappearance of 17-year-old Chelsea King, who disappeared last week from a wooded park in San Diego County.

Gardner, who is now in custody without bail for investigation of murder and rape, served only five years in prison for molesting a girl a decade ago after prosecutors rejected a psychiatrist's advice to seek a stiffer punishment, court documents state.

"We actually were discussing this case," Walsh said. "And his response and his outlook on it is the same as mine. How could this guy be out there and why was he out there and if he is out there, why isn't he being watched more closely?"

Walsh, whose 6-year-old son Adam was abducted and killed in 1981, has been host of "America's Most Wanted" since its start.

Walsh said that he didn't think the show would last so long.

"I don't think anybody did," he said. "It's kind of mind boggling."

Walsh noted that when the show began, the only other program on the network was "21 Jump Street," an undercover cop drama starring Johnny Depp.

"Whatever happened to that guy, I don't know," Walsh joked. "We were the first reality show and it's been quite an incredible journey."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.