In Henan Province, in central China, millions of people have been tuning in every week to watch an extraordinary talk show called Interviews Before Execution, in which a reporter interviews murderers condemned to death. The show ran for just over five years, until it was taken off air on Friday. 
 
 Every Monday morning, reporter Ding Yu and her team scoured court reports to find cases to cover on their programme. They had to move quickly, as prisoners in China can be executed seven days after they are sentenced. 
 
 To Western eyes the show's format may seem exploitative, but Ding disagrees. 
 
 "Some viewers may consider it cruel to ask a criminal to do an interview when they are about to be executed. 
 
 "On the contrary, they want to be heard," she says. 
 
 "Some criminals I interviewed told me: 'I'm really very glad. I said so many things in my heart to you at this time. In prison, there was never a person I was willing to talk to about past events.'" 
 
 I witness the transition from life to death Ding Yu 
 
 Interviews Before Execution was first broadcast on 18 November 2006 on Henan Legal Channel, one of 3,000 state-owned TV stations in China. Ding interviewed a prisoner every week until the programme was taken off air. 
 
 The move follows a handful of reports about the show in foreign media, which were triggered by a documentary to be screened on the BBC tonight and on PBS International in the near future. 
 
 The aim of Interviews Before Execution, the programme-makers say, was to find cases that would serve as a warning to others. The slogan at the top of every programme called for human nature to awaken and "perceive the value of life". 
 
 In China, 55 crimes carry the death penalty, from murder, treason and armed rebellion to bribery and smuggling. Thirteen other crimes, including VAT fraud, smuggling relics and credit fraud, were only recently removed from the list of capital offences. 
 
 Interviews Before Execution, however, focused exclusively on cases of violent murder. 
 
 Bullet or injection There are thought to be more executions than in any other country, although the exact number is a state secret 
 
 There is no presumption of innocence in Chinese law and confessions are sometimes taken before the suspect has had access to a lawyer 
 
 Convicted prisoners are killed by a single shot to the back of the head or by lethal injection inside a mobile execution truck 
 
 It never interviewed political prisoners or cases where the crime was in question, and the team received the Henan high court's consent in every case. 
 
 "Without their consent, our programme would end immediately," Ding told the BBC documentary team. 
 
 Broadcast every Saturday night, the programme was frequently rated one of Henan's top 10 shows, with nearly 40 million viewers out of the 100 million who live in the province. 
 
 It made Ding Yu a star, known to many as "Beauty with the Beasts". 
 
 If people failed to heed the warnings the programme offered, she says, then it was right that they should face the consequences. 
 
 "I feel sorry and regretful for them. But I don't sympathise with them, for they should pay a heavy price for their wrongdoing. They deserve it." 
 
 Many of the cases featured in the programme were motivated by money and one case in particular stands out for Ding. 
 
 The perpetrators were boyfriend and girlfriend - young, educated college graduates. 
 
 Image caption Bao Ronting was the first openly gay man Ding Yu ever met 
 
 The couple planned to rob her grandparents but it went wrong and the young man, 27-year-old Zhang Peng, ended up killing them both. 
 
 "They are so young. They never had the chance to see this world, or to enjoy life, a career, work, and the love of family. 
 
 "They've made the wrong choice, and the price is their lives," Ding says. 
 
 But after more than 200 interviews, little surprises her. 
 
 "I've interviewed criminals even younger than that young student, some just 18 years old. That is the minimum age you can be sentenced to death." 
 
 Homosexuality is still a huge taboo in China, and when in 2008 the show covered the case of Bao Ronting, a gay man who murdered his mother, ratings soared. 
 
 It was the first time Ding had ever met an openly gay man. 
 
 "I had never come close to a gay man, so I really couldn't accept some of his practices, words and deeds. 
 
 "Though he was a man, he asked me in a very feminine tone, 'Do you feel awkward speaking to me?' Actually I felt very awkward," she recalls. 
 
 Find out more Interviews Before Execution is part of the latest This World series, broadcast on Monday 12 March at 23:20 GMT on BBC Two. 
 
 Watch againon iPlayer (UK only) using the link. 
 
 She and her team made a further three episodes on the case of Bao Ronting and followed him until the day he was executed in November 2008. 
 
 During one of these meetings, Bao asked Ding: "Will I go to heaven?" 
 
 Remembering these words, she reflects: "I witness the transition from life to death." 
 
 Bao Ronting was paraded in an open top truck on the way to his execution with a placard around his neck, detailing his crime. The practice is illegal in modern China - but the law is not always observed. 
 
 Judge Lui Wenling, who worked closely with the programme-makers, says things are changing in the Chinese legal system. 
 
 "The present criminal policies in China are 'To kill less and cautiously' and 'Combining lenience and strictness'. 
 
 "It means, 'If the case is fit for lenient treatment, give it lenience,' and, 'If the case should be strictly treated, give it a strict punishment,'" he says. 
 
 Ding recently covered the case of Wu Yanyan, a young mother who murdered her husband after allegedly suffering years of abuse. 
 
 Since the death sentence for criminals is itself a violent act, then we should abolish it Judge Pan 
 
 She was initially sentenced to death for the murder. But since 2007, every execution verdict in China has to be approved by the Supreme Court, and in this case it took the view that the abuse provided mitigating circumstances. 
 
 The higher court kept returning the case to the local court until the death sentence was suspended. 
 
 Ding visited the prison with Wu Yanyan's daughter for an emotional reunion. If the young mother continues to behave well in prison, after two years she could ultimately be released - a small sign of changing attitudes in China. 
 
 Some senior figures in the justice system foresee more far-reaching reforms in the future, including Judge Pan, another judge who has worked closely with the programme. 
 
 "A life could end in the twinkling of an eye after a trial. I'd say this is also very cruel," she says. 
 
 "It's also a means of getting rid of evil deeds through an evil deed. 
 
 "Should we abolish the death penalty? Since the death sentence for criminals is itself a violent act, then we should abolish it. However, I don't think our country is ready yet. 
 
 "But in the future, it would be good to abolish it." ||||| ABC 
 
 The 40-million fans who have been faithfully tuning into China's death row reality show, "Interviews Before Execution" may have watched the last episode without knowing it. 
 
 Legal TV Channel, the station in central China's Henan province that produced and broadcast the show for the last five years, confirmed to ABC News it has been abruptly canceled due to "internal problems" and will not be seen again. 
 
 A spokesman at the station said that a new program on legal affairs will be broadcast in its place but could provide no further details. Requests for an interview with the host of "Interviews Before Execution" Ding Yu, were denied. 
 
 The cancellation comes at the end of a week in which the show made international headlines for the first time. 
 
 Both the BBC and PBS International own the rights to a documentary film, "Dead Men Talking," produced by a film company in China which goes behind the scenes for an up close look at how the show is made. 
 
 BBC2 has plans to air the show next week. 
 
 Articles in the Daily Mail, New York Times, ABC News and numerous other outlets described the show as a one of a kind reality series on a dark topic: death row inmates just before they die. 
 
 The host, journalist Ding Yu, interviewed more than 200 Chinese men and women, sometimes just hours before they were put to death. The majority of convictions were for murder under often gruesome circumstances. 
 
 In clips found online (many of which were taken down this week) Ding interviews a child-killer and a man who stabbed his ex-wife in front of her parents. Another killed a mother and child with an ax. 
 
 At times she promises to convey final messages to family members. At other times she is harsh, telling one subject that he deserves to die. 
 
 According to the Daily Mail, the show was approved by the government as a deterrent to would-be criminals. 
 
 Convicts were chosen by a judiciary committee for Ding for being "suitable subjects to educate the public." 
 
 Ding herself is a subject in the documentary and for the first time she speaks about the toll her work takes on her and describes the haunting images she lives with as a result of spending so much time with the men and women she interviews. 
 
 The show was not broadcast nationwide. 
 
 Few people know of it outside of Henan province in central China. 
 
 In China, 55 crimes are punishable by death. 
 
 China is the only country that does not release the number of people executed each year, despite international calls to do so by groups such as Amnesty International. 
 
 It is estimated that about a thousand people are put to death each year. That number cannot be confirmed but puts China well ahead of any other country by far. 
 
 Fan Bing contributed to this report. ||||| If “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory were a guest on his own show, he knows the kinds of questions he’d be asked. 
 
 Why have your ratings been falling? Is the show in trouble? Is your job in trouble? 
 
 “I get it,” says Gregory, the face of the longest-running TV program in American history (founded: 1947). “Do I want to be number one in the ratings? Every week I want to be number one, and we fight like hell to get there. And it’s tough right now. It’s a fight.” 
 
 He adds, “I’m not just trying to sell you — well, I am trying to sell you — but I’m not going to B.S. you, either. Yeah, it’s hard. I see what our challenges are. But we’re going to fix our problems.” 
 
 The main problem: The great-granddaddy of Sunday-morning Beltway blabfests isn’t just not No. 1. It’s No. 3 and in the midst of a three-year slide. During the first three months of this year, the NBC program finished behind perennial rivals “Face the Nation” on CBS and “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, despite being helped by two weeks of Winter Olympics hoopla. In the final quarter of last year, viewing among people ages 25 to 54, the preferred group for TV news advertisers, fell to its lowest level ever. 
 
 Bad enough. But fairly or not, Gregory’s “Meet the Press” still gets measured against the lofty peaks scaled by Tim Russert, his predecessor. Russert, the folksy inquisitor, ruled the ratings for more than a decade until his death in June 2008. He often attracted an audience 40 percent larger than his rivals, an unheard-of margin in television. 
 
 But now — to paraphrase Russert’s famous sign-off — if it’s Sunday, it’s not necessarily “Meet the Press” that Americans are watching. 
 
 These days, the leader is “Face the Nation,” hosted by Bob Schieffer, the grandfatherly 77-year-old newsman. Schieffer not only attracts the largest overall audience (a weekly average of 3.35 million during the first three months of 2014, 5 percent more than “This Week,” 8 percent more than “MTP” and 61 percent more than “Fox News Sunday”) but the largest audience among the coveted 25-to-54 set, too. (Schieffer’s competitors are quick to point out that comparisons aren’t quite fair since “FTN’s” ratings are based on its first half-hour, not the standard full hour; the program’s second half-hour isn’t broadcast by CBS stations in many cities). 
 
 The Sunday shows — which comprise what Schieffer calls “the smartest morning on TV” — are more than just prestige projects for the networks; the relatively large and affluent audiences they attract make them magnets for corporate image advertisers that pay premium prices for airtime. Russert’s dominating position helped NBC earn a reported $60 million from “Meet the Press” in 2007. 
 
 Thus, “MTP’s” meltdown has sounded alarm bells inside NBC News and attracted the attention of its new president, Deborah Turness, who arrived from Britain’s ITV News in August. Gregory’s job does not appear to be in any immediate jeopardy, but there are plenty of signs of concern. 
 
 Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan Pianta, was “to get perspective and insight from people who know him best.” But the research project struck some at NBC as odd, given that Gregory has been employed there for nearly 20 years. 
 
 Around the same time, the network appointed a new executive producer at “MTP,” Rob Yarin, a veteran media consultant. Yarin, who had worked with Gregory on an MSNBC show, “Race for the White House,” during the 2008 campaign, succeeded Betsy Fischer Martin, who reigned over “MTP” for 11 years. Fischer Martin had helped Russert soar to glory, but had disagreed with Gregory over matters of style and substance (she was promoted to oversee all of NBC’s political coverage). 
 
 In interviews, Yarin and Gregory say they are tinkering with the show to keep it abreast of a changing media environment. They’ve made the program’s pacing faster, with shorter interview segments. The range of topics and interview subjects has been opened up, too. Last month, for example, Gregory interviewed NCAA President Mark Emmert about proposals to unionize student-athletes — stealing a little thunder, he notes, from CBS, which was televising the NCAA basketball tournament at the time. 
 
 The overall effect is that the program now bears only a vague resemblance to the one over which Russert presided. Whereas Russert would spend multiple segments grilling a single newsmaker, Gregory now barely goes more than six or seven minutes on any interview or topic. 
 
 The changes were readily apparent on Sunday’s program, recorded at NBC’s studios in Northwest Washington. After opening with Gregory’s taped interview with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the host moved swiftly to live dual-screen chats with Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Then it was on to the journalists’ roundtable discussion, followed by an interview with Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) about health care and the midterm elections. 
 
 Then, still more segments: A new recorded feature called “Meeting America” in which reporter Kevin Tibbles looks at something happening outside Washington (in this case, a debate in Kentucky over the building of a Biblical theme park using tax subsidies); more roundtable discussion; and a photos-of-the-week feature called “Images to Remember.” The program closed with a short interview with New York Times reporter Jo Becker about her new book about gay marriage, “Forcing the Spring.” 
 
 Gregory says the new look “delivers on the core of what ‘Meet the Press’ is” but “widens the aperture . . . I’m dedicated to building something that says we’re not just thinking about politics. We’re thinking about who the real influencers are in this country.” 
 
 “This Week,” which is anchored irregularly by Stephanopoulos (he also hosts the daily “Good Morning America”), says it’s shaking things up, too. 
 
 The ABC program has a new executive producer, Jonathan Greenberger, a 30-year-old Stephanopoulos protege. Greenberger started at ABC News out of college at 22, and climbed so fast that the network waited for him to finish Stanford Law School before handing him the executive producer job at “This Week” last year. 
 
 Greenberger describes a program that is more ensemble in nature and more of a magazine than a traditional newsmaker-interview show. On a recent program, Stephanopoulos chatted with an ABC reporter in Ukraine about the latest news, then segued to a discussion with correspondent (and sometime fill-in host) Martha Raddatz about the unfolding diplomacy, followed by an interview with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 
 
 “A few years ago, we wouldn’t have moved so fast to integrate all of those elements into the program,” says Greenberger. “We’d have the vice chairman and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee on to have a debate.” 
 
 Like “Meet the Press,” “This Week” has to be wary of changing too much. The ABC program is still recovering from its attempt to build itself around former CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, whose strength is foreign affairs, not domestic politics. Amanpour lasted about 18 months as host before going back to CNN in 2011. 
 
 Schieffer, meanwhile, says “Face the Nation” isn’t planning to change. “There’s no bells and whistles here,” says the host, who’s been “Face’s” face since 1991. “We just try to move the stories of the week forward.” 
 
 The good news for all three shows is that they remain among the most durable on TV, if perhaps less influential than they once were. Even as everything else on TV has lost viewers over time, the Big Three have held steady and even gained viewers. Collectively, about 9.6 million people watched them each week during the first three months of this year, about the same number that watched Russert in 2005. This doesn’t count the audience for innumerable Sunday-morning competitors, from Fox News Sunday (hosted by former “Meet the Press” moderator Chris Wallace) to “Al Punto” on Univision. 
 
 The shows can occasionally make news, too, if the interview subject is big enough. Conservatives are still raising questions about then-United Nations ambassador Susan Rice’s comments on the Sunday shows in 2012 about the attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead. Gregory, meanwhile, mentions his “Meet the Press” interview with Vice President Biden in 2012, in which Biden expressed support for same-sex marriage, prompting President Obama to become the first sitting president to declare his support a few days later (in an interview with ABC). 
 
 Gregory himself has sparked controversy for what he’s said and done on the air. Conservatives called for the moderator’s prosecution after he held up a high-capacity ammunition magazine in an interview with National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre in late 2012 (possession of such armaments is illegal in the District; Gregory wasn’t charged). Last June, the Twittersphere exploded with outrage when Gregory asked journalist Glenn Greenwald about having “aided and abetted” NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden, insinuating that Greenwald was complicit in espionage. 
 
 The impossible burden for Gregory, of course, has been to follow the beloved Russert. As one NBC colleague describes it, Russert is a “ghost” who still haunts Gregory’s tenure at “MTP” six years into his run. 
 
 “I am fully aware that there are a lot of people who believe Tim Russert will never be replaced, and I’ve never tried to replace Tim Russert," he says. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for Tim and his legacy. And I’m doing my own thing, just like Tim did.” 
 
 But he also adds, a little more defensively, “I’ve covered the White House, I’ve covered 9/11, the road to war, constitutional crises, and honestly, I wouldn’t be able to focus on this job if I was going to let that stuff get to me. I knew it would be there going in and I’m just focused on being David Gregory and taking the show to the next level.” 
 
 Some Gregory supporters think he has the best hand to play over the long haul. Stephanopoulos has already pulled back from moderating “This Week” and may be in line to succeed 68-year-old Diane Sawyer as the anchor of “ABC World News Tonight” some day. Although Schieffer says he hasn’t set his retirement date, it may be not be very far way — “another year or so,” as he put it. 
 
 Which means both CBS and ABC would have to retool their Sunday-morning shows with new moderators. 
 
 “Time is on David’s side,” says Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, a semi-regular “MTP” panelist. “It’s semi-inevitable. He just has to keep doing what he’s doing, and continue to break new ground on the big stories of the week. In five to 10 years, we’ll be talking about him as the grand old man of Sunday morning.”
– Hit Chinese TV program Interviews Before Execution has been abruptly canceled—after five years on the air and just about a week of attention from the West. The show, which reached 40 million viewers every Saturday night, featured glamorous host Ding Yu speaking to condemned criminals days, hours, or even just minutes before their execution. Officials at China's Legal TV say the show, which just started popping up in Western press for the first time in advance of a BBC documentary on the show that aired last night, has been axed because of "internal problems," ABC reports. Some 55 crimes carry the death penalty in China, but Interviews focused only on murderers. In an interview with the BBC, Ding denied that the program was exploitative. "Some viewers may consider it cruel to ask a criminal to do an interview when they are about to be executed. On the contrary, they want to be heard," she said. "Some criminals I interviewed told me: 'I'm really very glad. I said so many things in my heart to you at this time. In prison, there was never a person I was willing to talk to about past events.'"