The Cougar Comes to TV Land

By Cassaundra Brooks
Photos courtesy of TV Land
If Demi Moore can do it and make it work, who says others can’t—or shouldn’t—do the same? Sure, she’s a stunning, talented actress; but women like Scottsdale’s own Stacey Anderson, star of TV Land PRIME’s upcoming show The Cougar, are equally equipped for the task—the task of finding true love with a younger man. The beautiful 40-year-old mother of four will sift through a pool of twenty-something men during an eight-episode elimination series executive produced by Mike Fleiss (The Bachelor) and hosted by the vivacious Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill: Vol I, Curb Your Enthusiasm), set to premier April 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

After a life riddled with tragedies and tribulations, but enriched by family relationships and community service, Stacey Anderson craves a companion with “spontaneity and zest for life,” qualities she has found many men her age and older lack. She plans to find someone who complements her optimism and active lifestyle on the show while helping to further break down the double standard placed by society on women dating younger men.

The successful Scottsdale Realtor spent the first part of her childhood in Long Island, New York before moving to Arizona with her tightly knit family. Her life would suffer a more dramatic alteration when she unexpectedly lost her mother to a brain aneurysm when she was just 12. Four years later, a marriage to her high school sweetheart and the birth of her first child, daughter Leah, drastically changed the course of her life once again. Not only would she assume the roles of wife and mother but she would also soon take on the role of lobbyist as she fought the state legislature to implement a new law to cover her daughter and other Arizona transplant recipients. The now 23-year-old Leah had been diagnosed with biliary atresia, an illness that had taken the life of Stacey’s infant sister and threatened to repeat itself. Thanks to the legislation Anderson helped to enact, other families with children in similar situations can find medical insurance. Her own daughter received a liver transplant at the age of 9 after having already lived nearly nine years longer than doctors had anticipated.

Although Anderson found love a second time after she and her husband separated, she was dealt another blow on her wedding day when her father passed away. New life would soon make her own make a turn for the better, however, as she and her husband soon welcomed her other three children: Graham, 15, Delaney, 13, and Tatym, 10.

These days, Anderson, influenced by her Italian family, spends her time enjoying food, wine, and conversation in addition to staying active with tennis, golf, hiking, and swimming. Divorced from her second husband, she now uses her business expertise to aid those in need by helping to acquire affordable land for the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity. Her business expertise has also helped her become one of the country’s top-ranked Realtors.

TV Land president Larry W. Jones praises the beautiful blonde’s personality and heart, dubbing her the “perfect choice” for the show and predicting it will break stereotypes about cougars—women seeking romance with much younger men. The Cougar will be produced through Fleiss’s NEXT Entertainment production company in association with Warner Horizon Television and will air on primetime TV Land, whose target audience falls within Anderson’s own age range. An animated host, a relatable star, and the ever-increasing interest in the topic at hand should help this newest reality series attract an audience, and perhaps affect a change in dating stereotypes.