ANALYSIS | Hit TV Show Heated Rivalry’s Impact On Canada
Photo Credit: Bell Media via IMDB
When the TV show Heated Rivalry premiered on Nov. 28, 2025, it took the internet by storm, telling a heartwarming queer love story following two rival hockey players. The show, which is based off of Rachel Reid's Game Changers novel series, weaves Canadian culture and imagery throughout the story. It was also partially subsidized by the government of Canada and streams on Crave, a Canadian streaming platform. In a time when LGBTQ+ rights are being threatened, Heated Rivalry paints Canada as an inclusive and progressive country. It brings in viewers looking for a cognitive escape, adding appeal and making the show popular throughout the continent, and even worldwide.
The show follows Shane Hollander, a Canadian native rising star player, and Ilya Rosanov, a Russian hockey player with an optimistic future in Major League Hockey (the show’s fictional equivalent to the NHL). The show spans a timeline of nine years as it follows Shane and Ilya’s early careers playing on rival teams: the Montreal Metros was Shane's team, and the Boston Raiders was Ilya’s team. Viewers watch the growing “heated rivalry” between the teams, while behind closed doors, they explore their sexual identity and forge a romantic relationship together.
Following the initial launch of the show, Heated Rivalry was quick to gain traction online. The practically overnight success of the show launched stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams into the public eye, and fans were quick to praise the show and cast online. Many Canadian fans expressed online that they were proud to have their tax dollars go towards a show that promoted diversity like Heated Rivalry.
In Canada, there is a program called the Canadian Media Fund (CMF), which is directly connected to the federal government. This is what makes it possible for the show to be funded by the government and Canadian taxes. This fund has a budget of money that is distributed to Canadian film projects like Heated Rivalry, and was created to help finance and develop projects of all audiovisual mediums that are made in Canada. The hope is to keep Canadian storytelling and art alive against dominant production companies in the United States. Producer Brendan Brady shared in a podcast interview that the show had a budget of just under $3 million Canadian per episode. The CMF contributed around $3.1 million to Heated Rivalry, which was a significant portion of their overall budget.
Heated Rivalry has also sparked a lot of conversations about queer spaces in sports, especially with hockey. There is a lack of representation of gay hockey players in the NHL, even though there have been openly gay hockey players in the league in the past.
“There's a homophobic slur or some type of slur said every time a team enters a locker room,” Brock McGillis, one of the first openly gay professional hockey players, shared in a Q&A with CBC. He had a successful career in minor league hockey, and after coming out in 2016, he pursued activism for mental health and inclusivity in sports.
The show helped highlight gay representation in sports in the same way that many organizations like You Can Play aim to achieve. You Can Play is an organization aiming to make sports an inclusive space for anyone who is a part of the LGBTQ+ community. They do this by partnering with sports organizations, ranging from professional to youth, and implementing custom programs catered to the organization’s needs.
Heated Rivalry has also inspired some real-life athletes to come out. Jesse Kortuem, a beer league hockey player who grew up playing hockey in Minneapolis, but quit due to a lack of inclusivity in the sport, took to Facebook to share his coming out and how Heated Rivalry influenced it. He gave praise to the Cutting Edge Hockey Club, Vancouver’s 2SLGBTQIA+ hockey association. “Wearing [the Cutting Edge Hockey Club] jersey that represents both my sport and my community felt like a bridge being built over a gap I had lived with for decades,” he said.
On Jan 29, Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech recognizing the cast and crew of Heated Rivalry at the Canadian Media Producers Association's (CMPA) annual Prime Time conference gala in Ottawa. Carney praised the show and its creators for choosing to produce in Canada, even if that meant a smaller budget. Studios in the United States were interested in director Jacob Tierney's vision but wanted to “tone it down,” as Carney shared in his speech. Production in Canada meant that the story would be told the way it was intended by Reid and Tierney. In his speech, Carney called the show “a true made-in-Canada phenomenon." He went on to cement how well the show reflects the principles held by Canadians, sharing that, “A fundamental Canadian value is that people should be able to be whoever they want to be, to love whoever they want to love.”