Beverley McGarvey is the executive vice president and the chief content officer at Paramount ANZ, and she is a girl boss.
Of course, we don’t use terms like girl boss anymore out of fear that it sounds condescending. But, there’s also no denying that McGarvey does bring a uniquely female lens to the network.
She’s invested in human-led content and helps drive forward diversity. So, when I call her a girl boss, I mean it as the highest of compliments.
McGarvey has a reputation in the industry as someone calm, kind and not interested in being driven by her ego. It’s the Jacinda Ardern effect; McGarvey’s carved out a space for herself in a male-dominated area without succumbing to pressure to behave just like a stereotypical man would.
McGarvey is also just fresh from celebrating some television success.
10’s Hunted is a new show that cut through routinely, bringing in above 500,000 eyeballs overnight and causing a stir on social media. But even in the face of success, she’s pragmatic about the network’s successes and failures.
McGarvey told B&T, “When we looked at Hunted, we saw it like an action movie. So we wanted to combine reality television with an action movie because we thought audiences would respond to it!”
McGarvey’s movie metaphor paid off, but does that mean she thinks new is what audiences are craving? Particularly after how mundane life has been because of the pandemic.
McGarvey believes audiences want both: “There’s still a base audience for our legacy shows, but audiences do want something new. We are launching quite a few shows at the end of this year, and it would be naive of me to think that they will all work, but you don’t need all of them to work.
“You just need a few of them to work so that you can return them.”
McGarvey’s returns rate has seen the network bring back shows like The Masked Singer and axe Bachelorette.
But McGarvey’s very measured about the successes and failures the network has experienced, “You’ve got to try some things to get some hits. We’ve taken a few bets, and Hunted did well,” she explained.
She’s also acutely aware that some formats always work, dating, cooking and building. She said: “I think some universal themes always work. Like cooking and dating, those are universal things that come and go; sometimes, they dip in ratings.
“But the question is, do you ride through the part where people lose interest? Or can you be innovative enough to bring them back? Or do you stop and start them again later? This begs the question, what is harder, stopping and starting or working through something that may need a refresh.”
In the case of The Bachelor, which hasn’t been hitting its usual big numbers, the network is going for a refresh.
McGarvey said that bringing in three Bachelors instead of one has really changed the show: “It gives the women more power, and you do get different stories.”
Will that format refresh pay off? Well, we will have to wait for the show to launch. But if you compare it to The Block’s recent tree change, which brought in big numbers for Nine. Then it could be just what the long-running show needs.
McGarvey is also acutely aware that the way we have watched things has changed.
She told B&T, “We have to serve our audiences international and local content across whatever platform they feel most comfortable watching it on. For example, if you chose to watch Hunted or The Neighbours finale on 10, 10play of Paramount+, that is fine. We just have to know how to measure that and monetise it.”
So does that mean she’s anti-daily numbers reporting? Well, yes and no. “The philosophy that reporting on one number based on a one-time slot doesn’t serve networks well is absolutely true, but I also think the industry is moving forward to using metrics, and that will change again, she explained.
And what makes a hit show? In today’s climate, viewing is so split up amongst viewing it via different methods. Well, “I think 500,000 viewers plus all the bells and whistles that come in the next seven days. I’d like it to be more, but I think that is realistic.”
Finally, how does McGarvey feel about the public perception of 10? Does she feel like the network is the underdog compared to Nine and Seven, or does she think the network is just simply underestimated? There’s no igrnoing the fact that 10 hasn’t ever topped the ratings, but tghere’s also no ignoring that it still does manage to best Nine and Seven on some nights.
She said: “It can be frustrating sometimes not to be represented in the way you want to be. I think that is uniquely Australia. Ratings and data become more of a story than other markets I’ve worked out.”
And what is Ten’s focus? Well, demos, of course! “I think we all try to focus on our successes and what success looks like for us. If you talked to our sales team, we focus largely on selling to under 50 brackets. I think we try and focus on what we do.”
Ultimately it’ll be interesting to see where McGarvey’s calm leadership style takes the network next.
