Are you addicted to Heated Rivalry?
The “reheating” trend is next-level fan devotion
Unless you’ve been living under a protective intimacy garment, you know that Heated Rivalry has hit big. The little Canadian show that could has been embraced by the entire planet—including the International Olympic Committee, which recently announced that Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie will be torchbearers at the upcoming Olympics. It’s like the height of Bieber fever, only compressed into a period of a few weeks, and the potency is hard to overstate.
Related: Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie are going to the Olympics
See: a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, which revealed that episodes on HBO Max are averaging eight million US viewers and counting. But what’s really interesting is how quickly fans are going back for more. Per Crave and Bell Media, one third of Heated Rivalry viewers have rewatched an episode, while 15 per cent have watched an episode five or more times. Five or more times!
The phenomenon has been dubbed “reheating” by the Hollanov fan community, as in, I’m on my sixth reheat of episode five. And sure, yeah, rewatching has always been a thing: maybe you go back to The Sopranos or Seinfeld or what have you. But this show is less than two months old, and it’s already starting to sound like some people may be in danger of overdoing it.
Related: “This was a fictional world, but it still felt healing”—Heated Rivalry star Harrison Browne on blazing a trail for trans athletes
So check in on your Heated Rivalry friends. Yes, they’re a little insufferable at the moment, but with the world falling to pieces, isn’t it kind of nice to see a show about love and acceptance get this kind of reception? (Also, episode five was the greatest moment that entertainment has ever produced. Don’t @ me.)
In related news, the Ontario fan community is preparing for the current snow dump by downloading all six episodes. After all, the internet could cut out, and if you’re on a diet of daily reheats, that could spell disaster.
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.”
