Heated Rivalry has finally scored a home in the U.K. and Ireland.
The gay hockey romance series is heading to Sky and its streaming service Now in January, Sky and Bell Media announced Wednesday. The series is airing on streamer Crave in Canada. HBO Max is the show’s U.S. home, while it’s airing on Sky in New Zealand.
The show, created for television by Letterkenny alum Jacob Tierney and adapted from Rachel Reid’s novel of the same name, centers around a fictional hockey universe. Heated Rivalry focuses on two rival professional hockey players — Canadian-born Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) of the fictitious Montreal Metros and Russian-born Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) of the fictitious Boston Raiders — as they navigate a years-long secret fling. Tierney and Brendan Brady are showrunning the series from Accent Aigu Entertainment.
Heated Rivalry is produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Bell Media’s Crave and distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus. Lucy Criddle, director of acquisitions and strategic projects, and Alexander Wright, acquisitions manager, handled the acquisition for Sky.
The show’s source material is the second in a string of gay hockey romance novels by Reid that are all set in the same universe. A synopsis from Heated Rivalry’s producers reads: “Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are two of the biggest stars in Major League Hockey, bound by ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them fully understands. What begins as a secret fling between two confused teenagers at 17 evolves into a years-long journey of love, denial, and self-discovery. Over the next eight years, as they chase glory on the ice, they struggle to navigate their feelings off of it. Torn between the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore, Shane and Ilya must decide if there’s room in their fiercely competitive world for something as fragile — and powerful — as real love.”
Heated Rivalry was already gaining traction online ahead of its premiere, but it’s become increasingly popular in the nearly four weeks since its debut. The show’s fifth episode will air on Crave and HBO Max Thursday (Dec. 18). It premieres on Sky in the U.K. and Ireland on Jan. 10.
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