Heated Rivalry’s quick rise surprises TV executives

The first season of Heated Rivalry, a Canadian series streaming on HBO Max, has continued to build momentum since it ended two weeks ago, drawing dozens of mostly young fans to the marquee of The Tonight Show in Midtown Manhattan to see star Hudson Williams. The show, about a pair of closeted gay hockey players, premiered in late November with little promotion but then saw unusually fast week-to-week growth in viewing.

During its debut week on HBO Max it accumulated roughly 30 million streaming minutes, and by the week of Dec. 26 time spent streaming had risen to more than 324 million minutes, Luminate said. Tyler Aquilina of Luminate called that growth “highly unusual,” and Casey Bloys of HBO Max described the series as “a word-of-mouth sensation.” Heated Rivalry was produced by Crave and licensed by HBO Max; it was created, written and directed by Jacob Tierney and adapted from a novel.

The story follows two professional hockey stars—one Russian, one Canadian—and its many sex scenes have been popular with viewers. The two leads, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, were relative unknowns, and HBO Max paid about $600,000 per episode to license the series in the United States.

The series has continued to perform: for the week of Jan. 2 it was viewed for over 254 million minutes, Luminate said. Demographics have shifted as well—an HBO spokesman said 53 percent of viewers were female on Dec. 22, and by the end of last week roughly two-thirds were women.

Key Topics

Business, Heated Rivalry, Hbo Max, Crave, Jacob Tierney, Hudson Williams