This article will contain spoilersfor season one of “Heated Rivalry.”
On Nov. 28, 2025, “Heated Rivalry” began airing on HBO Max. No one involved with production expected this show to become as popular as it did. It wasn’t a product of Hollywood in any way. It was created, funded and published entirely by Crave, a Canadian streaming service not available in the U.S. Once the show gained a bit of traction with queer audiences, more and more people, namely straight women, began watching the show in droves, and the rest is history.
The market for gay sports romance has always been a fairly niche one. It has exploded in popularity in the literary world, but that success hasn’t been able to transfer to the screen – until now. The ‘built-in’ audience, those most likely to engage with a show like this regardless of its quality, is the LGBTQ+ community. The number of stories that center queer love and experiences is increasing, but they are still far from mainstream popularity in most cases. Hollywood continually underestimates the power of queer audiences. There are ravenous fan biases for small side characters in numerous different shows across genres simply because the character in question is queer. They may not even be confirmed to be queer, just subtext, but queer audiences still latch onto stories with queer representation like their life depends on it.
Gay people get to see themselves represented on screen in “Heated Rivalry,” and because explicitly queer TV is still in its early days, it has the luxury of being one of the first of its kind to do a story like this. A secret relationship between two professional hockey players is a very specific setup, but the tropes used in the story are anything but. “Heated Rivalry” is a hidden love story, rivals to lovers, will-they- won’t-they romance, and because it’s a gay romance in particular, the way these familiar tropes play out is altered. What makes this story so engaging to queer audiences is the secrecy of it all. Even if we’re not professional athletes and don’t have nearly as much fame and recognition as the main characters Shane and Ilya, a lot of queer people can still relate to having to hide a relationship or hide their identity from other people, and people love to interact with media that they see themselves in.
Being queer is not a required prerequisite for enjoying this show or for relating to it, but it aids in understanding why queer audiences love this show so much. The other major audience that helped this show become as popular as it has is straight women. There is a long history between straight women and queer, particularly men-loving-men, media. Often, straight women adore gay love stories. This observable phenomenon has many potential reasons for occurring. It could be because women are attracted to men, and when there are two attractive men on screen in front of them, it’s twice as attractive. “Heated Rivalry” in particular certainly doesn’t shy away from showing the physical aspects of a relationship. Sex sells, always has and always will. For some women, that’s all they needed to be sold on this show.
Another explanation for women’s fascination with “Heated Rivalry” and with queer media in general is more complicated and more melancholy. There are no women present in gay relationships, so women don’t have an immediate way of inserting themselves into this story. In a man-only pairing, there is no threat of violence or obvious power dynamics at play because it is removed from the traditional, patriarchal setup of a man-woman pairing. No matter how far feminism has progressed in our society, which is a substantial amount, there are still many underlying issues that plague women today, and those issues trickle down to our media consumption habits.
Most people know and acknowledge that women are not subservient to men. Most people know and acknowledge that men aren’t always in charge in a relationship or in the bedroom, but that power dynamic is often in the back of a woman’s mind. It is something that all women have to think about everywhere they go and every time they enter any sort of romantic or sexual relationship with a man. When engaging with media that centers on gay male relationships, women get wrapped up in the romance of it all without having to think about these power dynamics. Another reason this show captivated its audience is a simple one: it’s a good show.
The writing is excellent. The actors are giving it their all. Even with a small budget, this show really makes the viewer feel immersed in the story that it’s telling. Some of the aspects of the romance are relatable to audiences, but the setting and grandiose nature of being a high-profile professional athlete are not relatable to most people watching. The creative team makes Shane and Ilya’s world relatable to its audience. We’ve likely never been an athlete in the Olympics, but we’ve had to attend a party we didn’t want to. We’ve likely never been NHL champions, but we’ve had to share a hotel room with someone. The show is filled with these little moments that sell us on its world, and that endear us to all of its characters. When a show is well-crafted, it garners goodwill with audiences. As more and more people see it, they’ll enjoy it and tell their friends to watch it too. With “Heated Rivalry,” there was an assumed audience from the beginning with queer folks. Then the show was able to capture the female audience – mostly with its sex appeal – and because the show is so well made, it snowballed and became the surprise smash hit that it is today.
“Heated Rivalry” is available to stream on HBO Max.
