Heated Rivalry

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are two professional ice hockey players who compete on rival fictional Major League Hockey teams, the Montreal Metros and Boston Raiders. Although their on-ice rivalry is amplified by media coverage and public perception, the two develop a private, initially casual sexual relationship that continues intermittently over several years as they pursued their careers. ==Cast and characters==

Main Featured • Trevor Hayes as Boston General Manager • Kaden Connors as Sasha, Ilya's former sexual partner and the son of Ilya's former coach • Harrison Browne as Connors, Ilya's teammate • Devante Senior as Miles, Rose's friend and co-star Recurring • Arthur Moukhortov as Sorren Miitka, Shane's teammate and the Metros' goaltender • Vitali Makarov as Sergei Vetrov, the Russian Minister of Interior, former Soviet goaltender and Svetlana's father Guest • Aidan Shaw as Kolya Andropov, Shane's teammate • Wayne Ward as Tom • Billie Mary Silas and Sam Nicole Silas as Ruby and Emma Pike, Hayden and Jackie's daughters • Foster Blake as Maxime, the bartender at Le Tambour • Tyrone Edwards as himself • Lainey Lui as herself ==Episodes==

Development Season 1 Heated Rivalry is based on Rachel Reid's Game Changers novel series (2018–2027). Jacob Tierney first reached out to Reid on August 7, 2023, a day after The Washington Post ran an article about hockey romance novels. He had listened to the Game Changers series on audio book and wanted to discuss the possibility of adapting them to a limited television series. When meeting with potential financiers for the show, Tierney and co-producer Brendan Brady said they were met with studio notes that wanted to "fundamentally change the story, or fundamentally change the tone". In June 2025, it was officially announced at the Bell Media Upfront that the series would be streamed on Crave. Tierney created, wrote, and directed the series. He also serves as an executive producer alongside Brendan Brady through their production banner Accent Aigu Entertainment. Lori Fischburg is a producer of the series, and Reid is a consulting producer. Season 2 Tierney's creative executive at Crave, Rachel Goldstein, discouraged him from adapting Heated Rivalrys epilogue into the series, as it could have been perceived as setting up a second season that had not been confirmed at the time. On December 12, 2025, it was announced that the series was renewed for a second season by Crave, with HBO Max returning as a key distribution partner. The renewal follows strong viewer interest and streaming performance during the first season's rollout. The agreement also includes expanded distribution deals, with rights for season two secured across multiple international markets via Warner Bros. Discovery's distribution arm and other partners. It is set to adapt The Long Game (2022), the sixth book of the Game Changers series, which serves as a sequel to Heated Rivalry. Tierney later told Variety that the second season would not premiere at the same time the following year, citing slower progress on the episode scripts. Casting Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie lead the cast as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, respectively. Alongside them François Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Sophie Nélisse and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova were cast. Both actors were working as restaurant waiters prior to being cast. Tierney said it was essential to him that he found two actors who had the "physicality of hockey players" who were also comfortable with nudity and intimacy. He also said he wanted to find them together since "the show lives and dies on their relationship". Tierney expressed that Williams and Storrie had chemistry that was obvious from the first read, even though it was over Zoom. Storrie revealed he had auditioned for the role shirtless, even though that had not been required. In a December 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams stated that he portrayed the character of Shane as autistic after receiving confirmation from Reid that the character was on the autism spectrum. Williams cited his own father, who is on the spectrum, as an inspiration. Nadine Bhabha, who plays Elena, was the first person cast in the series. She is a friend of Tierney's, and was offered the role directly without an audition. Arnaud, another longtime friend of Tierney's, received a call from him personally, asking him if he had received the script yet and telling him: "I didn't write this for you, but I cannot hear anyone else's voice in my head when I read it". Arnaud was surprised, perceiving the script as soft pornography, but changed his mind after understanding how the sex scenes are used to drive the story forward. Christina Chang, who plays Shane's mom Yuna, initially shared Arnaud's sentiment. She remembered reading the scripts and thinking, "Is this soft core porn? What's happening? It's hot. What the heck is happening right now? This is amazing. It's like Fifty Shades of... Oh, my God!" Kharlamova, whose role as Svetlana was substantially redefined for the television adaptation, stated that she approached the character with the intention of challenging stereotypical portrayals of Russians in Western media, noting that Russia has "around 200 different ethnic groups" and is "such a big country with so many different cultural influences." She was "very happy to show a different side". Filming , in which all hockey scenes were filmed where the cottage in the final episode is located Principal photography for the first season commenced in April 2025, with filming taking place across the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec for 36 days. In Ontario, locations included Toronto and Hamilton, with Dundurn Castle in Hamilton used as a stand-in for Moscow during a jogging scene involving Ilya in the episode "Olympians", and the outdoor of the McMaster Burridge Gym serving as the setting for Ilya and Shane's first meeting in the opening of the episode "Rookies". Additional filming in Hamilton took place at FirstOntario Concert Hall, which was used for the Los Angeles party sequence during the MLH draft. All hockey sequences, including locker rooms, ice surface, and stands were filmed at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph. A cast of real-life hockey players were used to fill in the team, including body doubles for close-up shots of the lead actors in action on the ice. There are also a number of Montreal-specific references, including Mile End, McGill University and Rose Landry's St-Viateur Bagel shirt. According to Playback, studio production shooting occurred in Toronto at Dark Slope on a practical soundstage as well as on an LED volume soundstage using virtual production for specified shots. Heated Rivalry was filmed out of order, which Tierney described as "one giant five-hour movie". The absence of frontal nudity was a decision made entirely by Tierney. While the scenes were heavily choreographed, Hunter allowed what she described as "artistic interpretation". The conversation between Shane and Ilya in a Tampa hotel in the episode "I'll Believe in Anything" was also filmed on the first day of production. The scene served as one of Williams and Storrie's audition scenes. The episode also features Storrie delivering a four-page monologue in Russian. After a particularly strong take, Tierney asked Storrie's dialect coach, Kate Yablunovsky, how much of it could be used, to which she replied, "All of it. He humbles me." Hunter noted that Storrie improvised a beat "so unexpected she had to step away from the monitors". In February 2026, on CBS Mornings, Tierney revealed that the second season is expected to begin filming in August 2026. He released the tracks "Rivalry" and "It's You" as a double single on January 9, 2026. The former serves as the series' theme song, while the latter accompanies the scene in the episode "Olympians" depicting Shane and Ilya's first instance of penetrative sex. The full soundtrack was released digitally on January 16, 2026, via Milan Records. CD and LP releases are set to be released later in 2026. On February 12, 2026, Milan Records released "MLH Anthem", the official theme of the league, composed by Anthony William Wallace. Peter Peter was contacted by Tierney over Instagram in mid-2024 asking if he would be interested in screen composing for a television show. The musician became a participant in the process, reading early versions of scripts, and composing music inspired by them. He eventually disposed of those songs when he received footage from the episodes and re-wrote the music to the images for about seven weeks. Satine's "C'est toi", and Cailin Russo's "Bad Things". According to Billboard, the songs' appearance in the series resulted in increased official on-demand streaming activity. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the Spotify streams for the t.A.T.u. track more than doubled following the release of the fourth episode. Classical music also makes a number of appearances in the series, including Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata which feature during the episodes "Olympians" and "I'll Believe in Anything", respectively. On the What Chaos! podcast, Tierney stated that he had intended to ask Carly Rae Jepsen to submit an original song for the first season, but "didn't even try" due to budgetary restrictions, adding that he would "definitely be asking" in the future. Miley Cyrus also expressed interest in contributing music for the second season. ==Release==

On November 19, 2025, nine days before the series premiere on Crave, it was announced that HBO Max had acquired US and Australian rights to the show for a day-and-date global release. HBO Max's acquisition of the series, which was spearheaded by the company's content chairman and CEO Casey Bloys and the SVP content planning and programming Jason Butler, was attributed in part to online social media buzz generated by the Game Changers fanbase who campaigned for global distribution. In December 2025, following its renewal for a second season, HBO Max bought further rights to the series for Latin America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Macau, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Europe excluding the UK, Ireland, Spain and Turkey. The series debuted on Crave with a two-episode premiere on November 28, 2025, followed by weekly episodes, with the finale airing on December 26. In advance of the program's television premiere, the first episode received a preview screening in Montreal at the 2025 Image+Nation festival on November 23, 2025. The series is also streaming on Sky-owned Neon in New Zealand and Movistar Plus+ in Spain. On December 19, it began streaming on HBO Max in the Philippines. On January 10, 2026, it premiered on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In India, the series began streaming on Lionsgate Play from February 20, 2026. The second season is expected to premiere in April 2027. Marketing The trailer for Heated Rivalry was released on October 9, 2025. The promotional posters for the series were photographed by Caitlin Cronenberg. On December 10, François Arnaud promoted the production between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning. During the event, which coincided with the league's Pride Night, the series' trailer was screened for the audience. In January 2026, HBO Max and the 2026 Winter Olympics organizing committee announced that Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams would be torchbearers for the games' torch relay; the two actors took part on January 25 in Feltre, Italy. HBO Max was scheduled to begin streaming both Heated Rivalry and the 2026 Olympics to Italian viewers in February. ==Reception==

Critical response In The Washington Post, Rachel Kurzius wrote: "Their faces capture a complex cocktail of feelings, their chemistry is bonkers and Storrie [...] pulls off an impressive Russian accent". while /Film described them as the strongest break-out performances of the year. Williams also received acclaim for his portrayal of an autistic character, with Time praising the performance for its nuanced, non-stereotypical depiction grounded in an authentic understanding of autism. Time review was endorsed by the Autism Research Institute. Arnaud's portrayal of Scott received widespread critical acclaim. Dominic Baez of The Seattle Times compared the "Hunter" episode to the acclaimed "Long, Long Time" episode from The Last of Us, calling it "a genius, moving inclusion" that was "anchored by François Arnaud's devastating performance." Daniel Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter expressed disappointment that Arnaud and Storrie were ineligible for Emmy consideration due to submission rules, highlighting Scott's championship moment and Ilya's Russian monologue among the series' standout scenes. David Caballero of Collider gave the series an 8 out of 10, noting the effective early development of their characters both individually and as a potential couple, and the prominent yet accessible use of hockey in the story. In The Globe and Mail, J. Kelly Nestruck lauded Tierney's writing and direction, saying he "teases out the nuances of homophobia in hockey in the time period depicted – the first two episodes careen from 2008 to 2014 – and the cultural challenges of being queer and closeted in Canada versus Russia without ever skating too close to the zone of social-issue drama". Lucy Mangan of The Guardian was more critical and gave the show three stars out of five, saying that it focuses too much on explicit, idealized depictions of gay sex at the expense of other aspects of the narrative, such as character development. It has also sparkled debate and discussion about the presence and visibility of LGBT people in sports, and about media portrayal of gay and bisexual men and its relationship with boys' love media and its predominantly female fandom. Within just a few weeks, commentators began remarking on the show's impact as both a queer story and a romance novel adaption. After only two episodes had aired, ''Harper's Bazaar listed it among the best queer television series of all time. By the end of the year, the series ranked among the best TV shows of 2025 on the lists by Cosmopolitan, the New York Post, Refinery29, The Seattle Times, and the Toronto Star. In April 2026, British Vogue'' included it among the 29th best TV shows of the century. Media outlets also noted the show's crossover appeal among hockey fans. Vogue Adria and InsideHook highlighted the Empty Netters podcast, hosted by former ice hockey players, for its enthusiastic coverage of the series which they cited as an example of "non-toxic masculinity" within the sport. In particular, the fifth episode received widespread critical acclaim. Tom Smyth of Vulture and Mads Misasi of Tell-Tale TV both gave the episode perfect five star ratings, while Cody Schultz of Show Snob described it as "a masterclass in storytelling" and one of the greatest television episodes of the year and of all time. Whitney Evans of TV Fanatic praised the episode's structure and pacing, as well as Storrie's performance, highlighting his Russian accent work and screen presence. Writing for Fangirlish, Lissete Lanuza Sáenz named it the best episode of the year, commending the performances of Williams and Storrie alongside the direction, cinematography, lighting, and writing, while fellow writer Lyra Hale highlighted the episode's portrayal of intimacy as a model for romantic storytelling on television. BJ Colangelo of /Film also praised the performances, specifically Williams, Storrie, and Sophie Nélisse, and remarked that the series and Storrie are deserving of Emmy recognitions. Audience response In addition to its critical reception, the fifth episode achieved notable audience recognition. Shortly after its release, it entered IMDb's rankings of highest-rated television episodes, attaining a rare perfect 10 out of 10 rating. For a time, starting on December 20, 2025, Following the episode's reception, the series itself also entered IMDb Top 250 TV shows chart. Despite not being available to legally stream in Russia due to anti-LGBTQ laws, the series achieved an 8.3 user rating on Kinopoisk, making it one of the highest rated shows in the country. The series was considered a pirated hit in China due to not officially released, and was one of the highest-rated shows on Douban with an 8.8 user rating. Viewership According to JustWatch, Heated Rivalry ranked fourth on its television streaming chart during the week of December 7, 2025, while Whip Media, based on data from its TV Time viewership tracking platform of more than 25 million users, reported the series placed sixth during the weeks of December 7 and 14. According to FlixPatrol, which compiles proprietary streaming viewership data, the series ranked second on HBO Max's Top 10 most-watched series chart in the United States on November 29 behind It: Welcome to Derry. The series also debuted at number two in Australia, and consistently ranks as the number one show each week. Conversely, the show ranked below the top ten in Nielsen streaming ratings. Because Nielsen classified Heated Rivalry as having been "acquired", as HBO Max obtained it from Crave, it was being compared to long-running comfort shows like ''Grey's Anatomy or NCIS''. Alongside the announcement of its second season renewal, Deadline Hollywood reported that the series had become Crave's most-watched original series to date, with viewership increasing by nearly 400% in its initial seven-day streaming window following its debut on November 28. The series became a significant word-of-mouth success, characterized by an "unusual" growth pattern in its viewership. Despite a minimal marketing campaign and a low-cost licensing fee of approximately $600,000 per episode, it experienced a rapid surge in popularity following its late-November premiere. According to data from the research group Luminate, the show debuted with 30 million streaming minutes in its first week, failing to break into the top 50 streaming programs. However, by the release of the season finale on December 26, weekly viewership had increased more than tenfold to 324 million minutes. Additionally, after the show was fully released, its viewership hardly slowed down. During the week of January 2, 2026, the show was viewed for over 254 million minutes. By January 21, 2026, episodes were averaging 8 million viewers; Similarly, American actor Connor Storrie is ineligible for consideration at the Canadian Screen Awards due to a rule change that took effect at the 14th ceremony, which restricts eligibility to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The show itself would normally have had to wait until the 15th Canadian Screen Awards in 2027 for award consideration, due to not premiering until two weeks after the eligibility cutoff date for the 2026 awards, but the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television acknowledged that the producers submitted a request for consideration under the appeals process, which was granted. Despite its ineligibility for the regular competitive Emmy Awards, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences did select it for the Television Academy Honors Award, its special award for television programming that advances positive social change. ==Cultural impact and representation==

Following the 2025 premiere of the television adaptation, lead actor Hudson Williams noted that the series had resonated with closeted professional athletes. During an interview on Radio Andy, Williams stated that he and author Rachel Reid had received private correspondence from active players in the NHL, NFL, and NBA who shared their experiences of concealing their sexual orientation. Williams described these interactions as evidence that while the show is "celebratory", its depiction of the challenges faced by LGBTQ athletes "hits people right in the nerves". The NHL also acknowledged the show's impact, with a representative describing the series as a "unique driver" for attracting new fans to the sport. Argentine field hockey player Nicolás Keenan compared the episode "Hunter" to his own experience prior to publicly confirming his relationship with Dutch politician Rob Jetten. Despite the show's LGBTQ representation and potential for impact, some scholars, journalists, and former athletes note ongoing limitations to the show's cultural reach. University of Guelph gender and sexuality studies professor Adam Davies argued that while the series increases queer visibility, structural inequalities and cultural norms within hockey—including the historical marginalization of Black Canadians and ongoing abuse scandals—remain significant barriers to systemic change. Brock McGillis, the first openly gay professional men's hockey player, expressed skepticism that the series would encourage players to come out. Though McGillis voiced his appreciation of the show, he suggested that portrayals of secret relationships might inadvertently reinforce fears regarding the consequences of being openly gay in professional hockey. The production has also been noted for its casting of queer performers. François Arnaud, who portrays Scott Hunter, is openly bisexual, and transgender actor and former professional hockey player Harrison Browne appears in a supporting role. These findings reflect the character arcs of Shane and Ilya, who both navigate concealment to protect their careers. Similarly, research into collegiate athletics suggests that while non-LGBTQ athletes report low concern about queer teammates, LGBTQ athletes report higher frequencies of homophobic language in locker rooms. ==See also==