Channel 10 ramping up local content, says ViacomCBS’s Beverly McGarvey

ViacomCBS’s local content boss Beverley McGarvey is beefing up the local show production pipeline for Network Ten.

Network Ten’s content boss Beverley McGarvey: ‘People will be excited when they hear what the originals are for Paramount Plus because it’s really good content.’ Picture: Adam Yip

ViacomCBS’s local content boss Beverley McGarvey is beefing up the local show production pipeline for Network Ten’s primary television channel and soon-to-be launched streaming service Paramount Plus.

Ms McGarvey, who will share the responsibility of running the US giant’s operations in Australia and New Zealand with KordaMentha’s Jarrod Villani from next month, said a new TV show is in the works with more details to be revealed around Easter.

A raft of original local shows are also being planned for Paramount Plus, which is set to launch in Australia next year. It will succeed 10 All Access, which has largely featured international programs such as The Good Fight, Interrogation and Why Women Kill since its launch two years ago.

“People will be excited when they hear what the originals are for Paramount Plus because it’s really good content,” Ms McGarvey told The Australian.

The new local shows for the streaming platform will be complemented by “amazing” international originals from Showtime, which is also owned by ViacomCBS, she said.

Paramount Plus will go head to head with Netflix, Binge and Stan, which will lose the bulk of its key Showtime programs at the end of the month.

Ten, which targets the under 50s audience, will kick off its 2020 program slate on the first Sunday in January with I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! for a second year in a row, more than a month before the official TV ratings year starts.

The show will run for a month, followed by The Amazing Race, featuring former rugby league player Beau Ryan, which will run during February. It will go against Nine’s coverage of the delayed Australian Open and reality show Married At First Sight.

“Our entertainment content generally holds up pretty well against sport because it’s different … and tends to attract a different audience,” she said.

The Amazing Race, which was filmed around Australia this year because of the COVID-19 travel restrictions, is “very different” to MAFS, noting Survivor did very well against the reality show in February and March.

Ten will then premiere its new game show The Cube with comedian Andy Lee just as the latest MAFS seasons enters the final stages of season eight.

Ms McGarvey is very pleased with Ten’s results this year, with its audience during prime time up 8 per cent year-on-year.

“We’re incredibly happy with not just our performance audience wise but also the quality and content of our shows,” she said.

“It’s important because we’re so hung up on talking about numbers and numbers are important. But ultimately … you build audiences because of the quality of your content.”

Ten has five of the top 10 TV programs in the under 50s category, including MasterChef, The Masked Singer, Have You Been Paying Attention?, I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! and Australian Survivor: All Sars.

Its long-running cooking competition show MasterChef, featuring news judges Melissa Leong, Andy Allen and Jock Zonfrillo, also recorded its biggest audience since 2016.