The show marks the next phase of The True Agency’s year-old "Infiniti in Black" campaign and will be backed by teaser ads, events and public-relations initiatives that begin next week and run through March, said Garlanda Freeze, management supervisor at True in Playa del Rey, Calif. The cost of those efforts and the time on BET amounts to an estimated $7 million to $10 million.

The approach differs from those of General Motors and Ford, which have placed brands in TV shows such as The Apprentice and 24, respectively, as well as in music videos and films.

Original programming is a first for Infiniti, a unit of Nissan that hired True in late 2003 as its first agency dedicated to reaching the black market. The show also breaks new ground for BET, which previously scheduled paid programming only on weekends in the early morning. "If it were a hard sell and something that was clearly commercial … then it would have gotten different placement and different treatment," said Michael Lewellen, svp of corporate communications at BET in Washington, D.C. "At the end of the day, we felt this is something that our viewers will enjoy seeing."