Katalyst gives TV Land dose of reality

Ashton Kutcher’s company Katalyst has scored another network success, with US baby boomer cablenet TV Land picking up its new reality series Forever Young.

The series, coproduced with JD Roth and Todd A Nelson’s 3 Ball Productions and based on an Eyeworks USA format, is a six-parter that explores ageism and how different generations have the wrong ideas about each other.

Different ages groups are placed together in teams in what producers brand as “part-reality show, part-social experiment.”

Katalyst and 3 Ball last hooked up five years ago to produce Beauty and the Geek, which aired in the US on now-defunct net The WB before moving to The CW.

TV Land’s Eliot Goldberg, who joined the company in March to work on series for a TV Land Prime-branded primetime block, and Marco Bresaz join Forever Young’s executive production team. This also includes Kutcher, Katalyst co-owner Jason Goldberg, Roth and Nelson.

“Ashton, Jason, JD and Todd’s take on the generation gap facing Americans today is brilliant,” TV Land’s president Larry W Jones said. “The contestants in Forever Young have challenging, touching but mostly hilarious interactions.”