{"id":374490,"date":"2025-12-26T06:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/374490\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T06:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:22:16","slug":"heated-rivalry-series-mixes-hockey-and-queer-romance-and-is-scoring-big-audiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/374490\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 series mixes hockey and queer romance and is scoring big audiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d is scoring big with hockey romance fans.<\/a> Since its Thanksgiving weekend debut, the steamy television adaptation of Rachel Reid\u2019s 2019 novel has dominated social media feeds and inspired a growing fanbase devoted to the queer romance at its center.<\/p>\n

The story traces Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov as they sustain a decade-long secret relationship, mixing slow-building yearning with explicit sexual scenes. Jacob Tierney, who developed, wrote and directed the series, said he was drawn to the project for its \u201cpure queer joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences have met that joy with a passionate response, propelling \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d to the No. 1 series on HBO Max<\/a> as the first season heads into its finale Friday. Along the way, it\u2019s generated new interest in the \u201cGame Changers\u201d book series that it\u2019s based on and drawn attention to sports romance fiction, especially stories with queer storylines.<\/p>\n

Originally developed for the Canadian streaming service Crave, the show scored a distribution deal with HBO and has already been renewed for a second season.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnashamedly, when pitching, it was just like, this is a Harlequin romance. This has a happy ending,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cThis is about two boys in love and a lot of sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018Game Changer\u2019 for hockey romance fans<\/p>\n

Hockey romance books have grown in popularity within the broader sports romance genre, fueled by readers drawn to the intensity of sport as much as the relationships at its center. Mackenzie Walton, who edited the \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d novel, said the genre\u2019s staying power comes from how deeply the stories immerse readers in the sport itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much more common when I read a hockey romance that I get the sense that hockey is important at the heart of the book, and I think readers really respond to that sense of authenticity,\u201d Walton said.<\/p>\n

According to the book\u2019s publisher Harlequin, Reid\u2019s six novel \u201cGame Changers\u201d series has sold 650,000 copies since the first was published in 2018. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime Hollywood pays attention to, and respects, romance fans, they notice and show their appreciation,\u201d Leah Koch, co-owner of the romance bookstore The Ripped Bodice,<\/a> wrote in an email. She added that producing a high-quality adaptation of a story queer readers might not have expected to reach television signals a growing recognition of both their cultural interests and their economic impact.<\/p>\n

Content creator Josh Banfield has been making Instagram videos about the show since its November premiere. He believes part of the show’s popularity with queer fans is the slow-burning aspect of Shane and Ilya\u2019s romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something nice about seeing the yearning and seeing that they do maintain contact with each other and still have this connection,\u201d Banfield said.<\/p>\n

Finding the perfect Shane and Ilya for \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019<\/p>\n

Fans and the creators behind the book and TV show also credit the lead actors, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, for the show\u2019s success. Tierney said he knew they were his Ilya and Shane almost instantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show was going to live and die based on this casting,\u201d Tierney said. \u201cI think once they did their chemistry read together, everybody was like, \u2018OK, fine, done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Reid, author of the books, said she was happy with the adaptation and with who was chosen to play the characters she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I built the perfect actors in a lab, I could not have built better people to play these characters,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

It was also important to both Tierney and Reid to have Shane played by someone of Asian descent, as the character is in the books, to keep a sense of diversity in a genre that tends to have mostly white characters. <\/p>\n

Going beyond the typical \u2018alpha-jock\u2019 story<\/p>\n

Hockey romances still tend to be dominantly white and heterosexual. According to Koch, readers who come to the Ripped Bodice’s locations are looking for more people like Shane \u2014 queer and diverse \u2014 to be in their stories. <\/p>\n

Customers frequently seek out queer sports romances and those that \u201cgo beyond the typical alpha-jock trope,\u201d she wrote. But she\u2019s skeptical that the success of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d will lead to more mainstream books or shows with queer stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cA breakthrough title does sometimes allow other authors more access, but not always,\u201d Koch wrote. \u201cBut hey, maybe they\u2019ll prove me wrong, and wouldn\u2019t that be nice?\u201d<\/p>\n

Romance blogger Laura Dusi-Showers said women in particular are responding to the male-on-male romance in a hockey book because of the fantasy aspect of seeing something different than their everyday lives. As for why it works, she said it was due to hockey being a \u201cmanly, aggressive sport\u201d with no out NHL players.<\/a> \u201cI think it\u2019s opening people\u2019s eyes to what could be,\u201d Dusi-Showers said.<\/p>\n

This was the reason Reid wrote her books in the first place: wanting to tell a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe series just came from a love of hockey, but also my own conflicted feelings about all the bad things about the culture around the sport, especially the homophobia,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

Reid\u2019s debut book in her hockey series, \u201cGame Changer,\u201d is about Scott Hunter, the fictional first fictional hockey player to come out publicly, and his juice-bar barista boyfriend Kip Grady. Part of this story was told in \u201cHeated Rivalry\u2019s\u201d third episode and featured as a climactic moment in the fifth episode.<\/p>\n

As to why fans are responding so strongly to the show and the actors, Reid singled out the acting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting really, really emotional or excited about one little quiet part or one line delivery, and that has nothing to do with the sex on the show,\u201d she said, pointing specifically to Williams\u2019 performance as the more awkward and less self-assured Shane. \u201cMaybe a choice that Hudson made as an actor is making everybody lose their minds, and I love to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d is scoring big with hockey romance fans. Since its Thanksgiving weekend debut, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[1928,5,47719,34884,48631,48635,48632,48633,45628,48634,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-374490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-ilya-rozanov","11":"tag-jacob-tierney","12":"tag-jaimee-foxworth","13":"tag-josh-banfield","14":"tag-laura-dusi-showers","15":"tag-leah-koch","16":"tag-rachel-reid","17":"tag-scott-hunter","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115784433251678216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}