The Educational Broadcasting Corporation, New York, produced a five-hour Public Broadcasting System (PBS) series on addiction and recovery hosted by Bill Moyers.

The National Opinion Research Center Chicago, conducted a telephone survey to evaluate the effect of the series on viewers' attitudes about addiction and recovery.

Key Results

• "Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home," a five-hour series, was broadcast over three consecutive nights, March 29–31, 1998. The series covered tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs in five segments:
  • Some 12 million people saw at least a part of the series over the three nights.
• A national 1-800 hotline telephone number and local hotline numbers broadcast with the series received more than 2,656 calls for help in the week of the telecast.
• A PBS telephone survey that measured the impact of the broadcast found that 80 percent of respondents reported they were more aware of possible solutions to addiction as a result of seeing the series.

Key Findings
The principal investigator reported the following findings:

• The five segments were rated good or excellent in quality by 85 percent to 91 percent of the viewers.
• Viewers proved informed and even sophisticated in their understanding of aspects of addiction even before the series ran, and their views changed somewhat after the broadcast.
• Viewer support for addiction treatment rose after the broadcast.

Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the project with two grants totaling $4,569,623 between November 1996 and November 2000.