Cougar alert! Cougars are everywhere on the small screen--CSI: Miami had a “cougar attack” on this week’s episode and ABC’s Cougar Town starring Courtney Cox looks like a ratings winner for the network.  If you believe what you see on TV, cougars are cool!

On this week’s CSI: Miami,  guest star Cheryl Ladd played a hot cougar mom who likes her college-age daughter’s boyfriends.  Another cougar on the prowl was played by Tia Carrere.  The promo for the show was thick with innuendo:

Beware of this breed of cougars. They might be sexy, but they don’t just catch their prey — they kill them.

Cougar Town stars Courtney Cox as Jules, a single mom in her 40s who dates younger men.  If you haven’t seen Cougar Town, this clip about the show will help explain the whole Cougar phenom

Cougars -- Reality or Myth?

Hollywood has cougars hunting younger men suburban subdivisions across America!  Is that reality? Older women have been dating younger men for years.

The Houston Chronicle interviewed professor Elizabeth Cullingford, chairwoman of the English department at the University of Texas at Austin about cougars:

It’s a fairly common motif. But there aren’t too many cases in which it ends happily.

Historically, cougars might not have a great track record but Huffington Post’s Bonnie Fuller says things are looking up for women past 40:

Call them cougars or call them MILFS, just don’t call them over. Let’s discuss Demi Moore, 46, and Madonna, 50. The two Kabbalists are the envy of younger women everywhere. Demi, for her sexy, un-plastic-surgery-looking looks and devoted 15 years-younger, GORGEOUS husband, Ashton Kutcher, 31…and Madonna for her rock hard body and years younger lovers, A-Rod, 33, and Jesus Luz, 22.