The leads of Heated Rivalry staring each other down on the ice
By
Brennan Klein
Published 21 minutes ago
Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.
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Heated Rivalry has caused a stir on social media. The Canadian show, which follows the torrid affair between hockey rivals Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), debuted with its first two episodes on November 28 on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in Australia and the United States.
The steamy new series was created by Letterkenny's Jacob Tierney and is based on the LGBTQ+ romance novel of the same name by Rachel Reid, which is the second in her Game Changers series.
Now that the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry have aired, audience members have taken to social media to share their hot and bothered reactions. This includes a wide variety of memes sharing users' outsized responses to the premiere. See select posts below:
@dinahbelova shared a gif of an overwhelmed person on a roller coaster, describing the series as "a lot freakier than i thought it would be."
sandy shared a comedy video labeled "me leaving the movie with a whole new personality" alongside the caption "finished the first two eps of heated rivalry."
@buddierot said that the show is "100% taking it," describing it (in all caps) as "HEALING YAOI."
london shared a clip from a talk show of someone describing their desire to inject something they love directly into their veins and saying, "that kind of s--t just fuels my fire, I love it." The user added the caption "just finished the first 2 episodes of heated rivalry."
Emma shared a Golden Girls gif of Bea Arthur biting her fist as a reaction to "THAT LONG-SLEEVE TECH SPORT SHIRT" worn by Hudson Williams. At the time of writing, Emma's handle on X has also been adjusted to include the phrase "heated rivalry era."
amandine (who also has an adjusted X handle that reads "heated rivalry spoilers") shared an image from the series and discussed a major plot point from the first two episodes by saying that "If Shane looked at me like that after [a] month of not talking, I would not be able to let him go either."
It remains to be seen if the six-episode Heated Rivalry series maintains this same level of audience interest through the remainder of its run, which concludes on December 26. Additionally, the level of viewership it has had is currently unknown, as it has not been available on the platform for long enough to land on the daily chart of the most-watched titles on HBO Max.
However, given the strong reactions that the show is already getting on social media, Heated Rivalry has a chance to become another major LGBTQ+ streaming hit in the wake of popular modern titles such as Prime Video's Red, White, & Royal Blue (which has a sequel in development) and Showtime's Fellow Travelers (which was nominated for three Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes).
It is also possible that, if Heated Rivalry becomes a ratings sensation, it could lead to adaptations of more hockey romance novels by Rachel Reid and others, resulting in the trendy subgenre becoming just as popular on the screen as it has recently proven to be on the page.
Heated Rivalry
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Drama Romance Sports Release Date November 28, 2025 Network Crave Directors Jacob TierneyCast
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Connor Storrie
Ilya Rozanov
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Hudson Williams
Shane Hollander
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François Arnaud
Scott Hunter
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Robbie Graham-Kuntz
Kip Grady
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Heated Rivalry
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