A study investigated the viewing behavior of a sample of public television supporters, specifically examining the relationship of their social characteristics to viewing and to knowledge about Africa as presented in the series "The Africans." Subjects, 120 District of Columbia adults drawn from the membership lists of a local public TV station, were interviewed by telephone six weeks after the first episode of "The Africans" was aired. A maximum of two follow-up calls were made after the initial call. Findings indicated some support for the belief that viewing "The Africans" contributed to viewers' knowledge about Africa, and that the viewing audience was active and interested in learning and apparently stimulated by the series to seek more information about Africa. Within this limited sample, learning and viewing were distributed somewhat broadly, suggesting that the series was not strongly perceived as a "black" program and had wider appeal. This supports the idea of the need for informational diversity in public television. Although this was a limited study, the role of viewing in predicting knowledge was strong and consistent with other research studies examining learning from well-structured television messages even under casual viewing conditions. (Tables of data and references are included.) (NKA)