Hollywood North's Hottest Export: Heated Rivalry as a Canadian Production

Heated Rivalry has taken the world by storm. 

For those who have not seen it, this may seem like a smutty gay hockey show and nothing more. However, over the past couple of months since its release, this unassuming show has proven itself to be a deeply intimate, vulnerable, and relevant story about queerness in sports, complex family dynamics, and how we approach love. Made on a tight budget and only spanning six episodes, it would not have been surprising if this show never reached a massive audience. Despite this, due to its loyal fanbase from the book, faithfulness to the source material, masterful production, and top-tier acting by Hudson Williams (playing Shane Hollander) and Connor Storrie (playing Ilya Rozanov), it has become a huge success and global phenomenon. It has been praised by audiences and critics from all around the world, winning the 2026 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New TV Series. 

One of the most surprising things about the huge success this show has achieved is that it is a Canadian production, created by Jacob Tierney for Crave, a Canadian streaming service. The Canadian film industry is a confusing thing to navigate. Many foreign film projects, namely Hollywood films, are shot in Canada because of the variety of landscapes, the various financial incentives that are offered to those who film here, and the film talent that is readily available. Canada is extremely active in film and television production, but when it comes to the market share of domestic films in the country, it only makes up around 2% of all box office revenue, Telefilm Canada reports. Overshadowed by its neighbor across the border, Canadian on-screen entertainment has always had trouble fighting for an audience, even in its own country. 

When this context is taken into consideration, the virality of Heated Rivalry is not just your everyday success story—it is a tremendous feat and a mind-blowing achievement.

Why did it do so well?

The show’s success can be attributed to a number of factors. Tierney’s vision for Heated Rivalry was for it to be a queer story that has a happy ending. He says in an interview with Toronto Life,

“This show is queer joy for adults. None of the characters go back to a miserable wife. No one self-harms. There’s a tendency in queer art to focus on real tragedies. Sometimes, it feels like we’re still telling stories about the McCarthy era or the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We deserve to have a gay show that is sexy and horny and fun.”

Although having made leaps and bounds in terms of progress, queer representation is still limited in its scope in modern entertainment. By choosing to adapt author Rachel Reid’s Game Changer series, a raunchy gay romance that is as nuanced as it is fun, he filled a gap in the film and television market for a type of story that we rarely get to see. 

Just because this is a joyful show does not mean that it erases the struggles and hardships that the main characters face. The sports world, especially the NHL, has historically not been open to queerness, being the only major North American professional sports league to this day to not have openly gay players competing in the regular season. Shane is confirmed to be an autistic Asian-Canadian character in the series, and the internal struggle that is born of these conditions is folded into the subtext, creating a layered and intriguing story. The pressure put on Ilya from his family, his identity as a queer person in Russia, and how these two things intersect is also a complex storyline that is touched upon in this show. All of these things make the two main characters deeply human and interesting to delve into, especially in the context of them being the top two players in the NHL and having to keep their relationship a secret. 

Aside from the beautifully crafted story, it is also a visual treat to look at. It is shot on an anamorphic lens with an aspect ratio of 2.4:1 instead of 16:9, making it appear more cinematic and dreamy than your average network television show. Even on a tight budget, the showrunners were able to find locations and create sets that immersed the viewer into the world of Heated Rivalry, getting creative with set design, cinematography, and LED backgrounds. 

Finally, it certainly helps that Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie are a breath of fresh air in the world of celebrity. Before their roles in this show, they were unknown actors, mainly playing roles in short films up until the filming of Heated Rivalry. Both actors have been in the industry for a long time, working as waiters while auditioning for roles for years on end. Knowing this backstory and seeing the outstanding performances they gave as Shane and Ilya in the show, audiences cannot help but want to cheer on and support these two actors who were chasing their dreams and have finally made it. Their Instagram account followings skyrocketed to just shy of four million, they are being flown all around the world to fashion shows and exclusive events – most recently attending the Oscars – and they are being cast in new projects as we speak. Fans could not be happier for them.