A Heated Rivalry-inspired reality series is in the works
But will it even feature any Canadians?
Heated Rivalry, the Canadian series about a steamy romance between two professional hockey players, is a global cultural phenomenon. Since premiering in late November, the show has earned pretty much every taste marker there is, including a 99 per cent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, appearances by its stars at the Golden Globes, and shout-outs from Miley Cyrus and Pedro Pascal. Now, it’s getting a reality show spin-off—sort of.
Related: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman binged all of Heated Rivalry in one night
Presumably, the just-announced IRL series inspired by the success of Heated Rivalry won’t officially be affiliated with the show itself, which means the creators will need to find a different title. But that doesn’t mean this moment can’t be milked.
Joel Relampagos is a US producer who won an Emmy for his work on Recipe for Change (co-produced by LeBron James). In an interview with Out magazine, Relampagos described his new project as an unscripted series that will explore life both on and off the rink. He also made a pitch to prospective cast members across the US: “If you’re reading this and you’re an openly out hockey player, or know someone that is a hockey player, check out the instructions for casting in this article, and I can’t wait to hear from you!”
Related: How Heated Rivalry’s intimacy coordinator choreographed the show’s steamiest sex scenes
Relampagos encouraged would-be reality rink rats to “think of it as the Avengers of gay hockey,” a direction that also sounds like a future copyright headache, but we’ll leave that to the lawyers.
In the meantime, we’ve got a bone to pick: Heated Rivalry is a Canadian series about Canada’s game. Hudson Williams (a.k.a. Shane Hollander) is a Canadian actor. The show’s director and creator, Jacob Tierney, is Quebec cultural royalty. And the book’s author, Rachel Reid, is a maritimer. Despite all this Canadiana, they chose to run the search across the US. To quote Ilya Rozanov when he first heard Shane’s loon call: “WTF was that?” (The show’s producer and casting director did not respond to Toronto Life’s request for comment.)
These may be tense times for Canada-US relations, but icing us out of our own cultural phenomenon feels like a proverbial kick to the jock strap.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
