NEW YORK (AP) - Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's call girl scandal prompted ABC News to give the go-ahead to a two-hour prime-time special on prostitution that includes Diane Sawyer's visit to a legal brothel in Nevada.

The "20/20" special, which airs 9 p.m. EDT Friday, has been in the works for two years. It was expected to be on sometime in May or June, but ABC moved it up because Spitzer's resignation last week put the topic in the headlines, said David Sloan, executive producer of ABC's newsmagazines.

"It has taken a lot of time and I think it's going to be very provocative," Sloan said.

The special's lengthy gestation did not indicate any cold feet on the part of ABC about airing it, he said. It will be on during the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would hear a major case about broadcast indecency.

On "Prostitution in America: Working Girls Speak," Sawyer interviews sex workers in poor neighborhoods outside Philadelphia and in one of Nevada's legal brothels. ABC hurriedly set up interviews with some highly paid prostitutes who work the luxury penthouses in a nod to the Spitzer scandal.

The New York Democrat is accused of spending thousands of dollars on expensive prostitutes, most recently paying for a woman to travel from New York to Washington where he was spending the night.

"Much of the coverage on prostitution is as a cultural phenomenon, when it's really about human beings that are in crisis," Sawyer said. "There is a lot of denial about the suffering these women experience."

Sloan said the special is structured so much of the racier material is confined to the second hour.

ABC speaks to experts on the issue, including columnist Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, particularly during the first hour.

"Behind every prostitute is a story of sex abuse, drug dependency or mental illness," Sloan said. "No one chooses this."

He said it was a serious look at the issue, not an attempt to be salacious.

"We're very proud of it," he said.

In a rare and intimate look at the oldest profession in the world, Diane Sawyer goes inside both the legal and the underground businesses of prostitution in America.

From expensive New York penthouses to Nevada's legal brothels to the tough streets outside Philadelphia and Reno, Sawyer speaks candidly with America's "working girls."

Who are these women, what drives them to sell sex for money and what is it like to work as a prostitute? Sawyer also speaks with experts, including New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, to examine the state of prostitution today.

Watch "Prostitution in America: Working Girls Speak" Friday on a special two-hour "20/20" at 9 p.m. ET.

The world of high-end, high-priced prostitution has been in the news lately because of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's scandal involving an alleged high-priced escort service, but this kind of service underrepresents what prostitution in America really is. Behind the "Pretty Woman" image is a world of vulnerability, danger and fear.

For more than two years, "20/20" cameras documented the daily risks of streetwalkers and expensive call girls. The report captures the realities of who these women are and how the law deals with them compared to their male clientele.

The program follows women -- whether a single mom, a college student, a housewife, a school teacher or a drug addict -- who have ended up in places they never planned to be. Some are lured by the dream of a flashy lifestyle and fast money, others to feed their drug habit and just to survive, but almost all struggle with the challenge of how hard it is to get out of the profession.

Whether the women are making $20 in five minutes or $20,000 in one night, the program follows the grim spiral of dependence these women often fall into.

One working girl named Jessie says,"We believe money buys happiness. And it doesn't. But it does for a while." Another says she makes as much in one day at a legalized brothel than she would make as a nurse working for two weeks. What would it take for them to change their lives?

"Behind every prostitute is a story of sex abuse, drug dependency or mental illness," Sloan said. "No one chooses this."

Is it me,or wasn't this program shown here in CR on Amnet? Paco said in the beginning of this thread that it would be on ABC last night at 9pm EST which was 7pm our time. I tried a few times then went back to basketball.Did I miss something,or didn't the feed from Denver pick it up?