YouTube stars ‘The McCarties’ are expanding their world.
Separate to the Spooky special, the first live interactive show, which Catherine Winder (Wind Sun Sky) said “proved their ability to do half-hour episodes,” revealed at French industry event Mipcom that an animated series and an unscripted competition series with Kevin Healy as host are already in development.
“We’re looking for really innovative ways to expand our brand,” said Viral Nation’s Paul Tellner.
“There’s nothing like them on YouTube. They’ve really hunted down this kind of scary Halloween content.” Stephanie McCarthy said an e-commerce site has also been launched, all within the same “cohesive” world of Camp McCarthy.
His family also reflected on his original intentions.
“Before all of this started, I was a high school history teacher. I had no ambition or desire to do what I’m doing now. I didn’t even know it existed!” Kevin McCarthy admitted. The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything.
“Stephanie works in the healthcare industry, so she was away from home, and I was stuck with a 4-year-old and a 6-month-old. To keep us sane, we started making silly videos and those videos started to take off. We were growing and growing on TikTok, but we knew YouTube was the place to be.”
Eventually, he decided to focus on their channel full time.
“We had 8,000 subscribers on YouTube. That was in 2022. Now we have 16.1 million subscribers and over 22 billion views,” he said, adding that Telner called “The McCartys” “one of the fastest growing in social media history.”
“I started watching[them]and thought, “This is some of the weirdest, funniest, weirdest stuff I’ve seen on YouTube or social in years. They’re running a channel with kids, and it has storytelling at its core. This is not an influencer channel. It has story and character, and it’s very close to traditional production considerations.”
Winder also praised their creativity and “great storytelling fundamentals.”
“It’s weird. It’s creepy. I thought, ‘This is like ‘The Addams Family’ meets ‘Beetlejuice.’ We were looking forward to something new and fresh in the field of animation. It made sense to go into business with them,” she admitted. It was also because they were willing to work “outside the box.”
“Before, it was very difficult to bring in a property like this and say, ‘Okay, let’s start producing an animated series.’ We had to find a way to test and learn and create an undeniable package that would allow us to bring in partners and investors but still be in a position to maintain control over what we were doing.”
As Stephanie McCarthy pointed out, their established fan base helped.
“One of the great things about social media is that you get all the data in real time. You don’t have to sit and wait. You get it right away. You can act on that feedback. Anime characters are no strangers to fans either.
“They’re in my live-action videos. You see them every day and they already have an established fan base,” Kevin McCarthy said. This includes Clown’s Jingle Jangle.
“We were lucky enough to go to Kathryn’s studio in Vancouver and animate Jingle Jangle in a motion cap suit. We really wanted to prove that this works. Last year, we posted videos with an animated Jingle Jangle and an animated Audrey in our live-action feed. They had just under 200 million views, and we gained over 3.3 million subscribers on those videos alone.”
Although their content is “popular in the children’s space,” it’s actually “for all ages,” as Stephanie McCarthy, also known as Demon Mom, claims.
“Kevin doesn’t necessarily write for kids. He writes things that he thinks are funny. Kids tend to be drawn to that, but it’s totally co-viewing. It’s something they can relate to,” she noted, with her husband adding some trivia.
“The reason[for “Demon Mama”]was because it was mostly a daddy-daughter story, and sometimes a son story, and the audience kept asking, “Where’s Mommy?” They even thought she was dead! We are twisted, weird, and funny. I said, “Why don’t we demonize her?” It exploded and she got millions of views. ”
Since the family was already a “human comic,” he argued, it was natural to expand the world.
“This is a very tight fit for our type of content. At some point, you get to the point where you corner that market. That’s exactly what Stephanie and I have been doing on YouTube and other platforms. We want an animated series because all we can do on video is throw our son into the sky. Why not throw him into space as a cartoon?”
“These days, we work for long-term careers. The McCarthy family has been in this forever, and we’re helping them build their businesses,” Terner said, adding Winder: “That’s where animation comes in. Animation is timeless and crosses borders around the world. This is a great way for them to stay in this job for the long term.”
“We’re building a huge brand.”
