- Mike Shields, Mediaweek

NEW YORK The Ashton Kutcher-led production firm Katalyst Media has entered into a partnership with leading social networking apps developer Slide Inc. to launch an original Web series on Facebook.

The new short-form offering, "KatalystHQ," is conceived as a mock reality series providing viewers with a behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on at the Katalyst offices in Los Angeles. The first episode, "Method Acting," features Kutcher preparing a bit too seriously for an upcoming movie role.

Episodes of the show, which debuts today, are being distributed via Slide's ubiquitous FunSpace app, which officials claim reaches 150 million users on Facebook.

The new partnership between Katalyst and Slide is noteworthy on several fronts. It marks one of the first examples of an original series finding its way exclusively onto Facebook, which is generally viewed as less of an entertainment venue than rival MySpace. Plus, the series offers advertisers a bigger canvas than is typically available on Facebook -- which does not directly gain revenue from any resulting ad deals.

On the ad front, Slide executives said episodes of "KatalystHQ" would regularly contain product integration. Cheetos is featured in the first episode.