The Tonight Show went all in on Heated Rivalry Wednesday night as breakout star Hudson Williams made his late night debut.
The show’s in-studio audience went wild when host Jimmy Fallon mentioned the 24-year-old actor. Fallon and The Root’s Tariq Trotter, also known as Black Thought, got into a heated, some pun intended, argument about the true feelings and emotions of Heated Rivalry’s main characters, Shane and Ilya, before Williams came out to assure them they were both right. Fellow Tonight Show guest Chelsea Handler also brought up the actor, joking that she was “in a throuple with the guys from Heated Rivalry.”
The pandemonium started before Fallon even had the chance to speak with the actor, with social media posts popping up, showing people waiting overnight for a chance to see him on the show. Fans crowded NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza building as he made his way in and out of the building.
Williams took the stage, cracking open a ginger ale and throwing on some glasses — a nod to his character Shane Hollander on Heated Rivalry — and lovingly joking about the “freaks outside” who waited for him to appear on the show when asked about how he’s taking it all in.
Williams said the challenging part of the series was playing up the rivalry between his character and his co-star and onscreen love interest, Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie. “That bit is one of the harder elements because we became besties right away,” he said of Storrie.
When asked about what fans can expect for season two, the Canadian actor was pretty tight-lipped but shared a morsel of what’s to come. “There are some meanies. There are some big baddies,” he said. “If season one is an internal battle, season two is an external battle.”
Williams also showed the late night host the much-talked-about hockey stretching exercises, making the late night host get on the ground with him for a live demonstration. Fallon asked where he went and Williams told him to join him face-to-face for the stretch.
“This is the best it gets,” Williams joked to the host, adding, “Carson didn’t do this,” before critiquing his form. The actor then made Fallon go to another part of the stage to do the next step of the stretch, waving and cheekily saying, “Hi, mom,” as he got into the stretch.
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