Heated Rivalry‘s Robbie G.K. and Game Changers book series author Rachel Reid didn’t miss Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper‘s live TV riffing of the popular Canadian drama series during CNN’s live New Year’s Eve special Wednesday night. The show clearly became an obsession throughout the night.
In their classic, hilarious back-and-forth on the annual NYE special, Cohen and Cooper debated who would play Ilya and who would play Shane on the LGBTQ+ sports romance series.
Amid their teasing of each other and boozing, Cooper at one point brought up a reference to a bed (frame as he later clarified) Cohen had gifted him in 2025.
Cooper told Cohen there was “something about sleeping in your bed… It just, I don’t know,” suggesting he didn’t feel quite right about it and wouldn’t sleep in it.
“The bed frame,” Cohen interjected. “I didn’t give you the mattress.”
Cooper insisted, “Well, I know. But I don’t know. I just…”
Cooper later clarified that it was a used bed (frame) that Cooper banished to a guest bedroom in his house, which offended Cohen when he found out.
“I thought that it made us like closer,” Cohen teased Cooper. “Like better brothers, or something,” to which Cooper laughingly replied,”This isn’t Heated Rivalry.” And from there, the banter took off, with the two debating who would play Ilya and who would play Shane, the show’s leads, with Cohen asserting to Cooper, “You’re Ilya, and I’m Shane.” Cooper reacted quickly, saying “What?! I”m not either of them. I’m Kip.”
Reid, who authored the Game Changers book series on which Heated Rivalry is based, reposted an image on her Instagram Stories of Cohen and Cooper’s back-and-forth with the caption, “I keep thinking nothing can surprise me at this point, but…
Robbie G.K., who plays Kip on the show, also posted the exchange.
Heated Rivalry follows rival hockey players Shane and Ilya, played by Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The two are bound by rivalry and ambition, but begin a secret affair which evolves into a years-long relationship.
Canadian streamer Crave recently greenlighted a second season of the steamy ice hockey drama, with HBO Max again taking rights in the U.S. and Australia and Sky in the UK and Ireland. The drama is now Crave’s biggest original series on record, growing its viewership by nearly 400% in initial seven-day streams following its debut on Friday, November 28, per mParticle and Amazon Channels internal data.
Cohen and Cooper also chatted with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, along with Colbert’s wife, Evelyn McGee-Colbert.
Cohen teased Cooper saying that that Evelyn “is the top of their relationship, I found out.”
“Oh my god, what is that… What?” a confused-looking Cooper asked Cohen.
“It’s true,” Stephen Colbert replied, “but I’m a bossy bottom.”
Cohen exclaimed, “Yes! Stephen Colbert is a bossy bottom,” then pointed at Cooper, looking into the camera saying: “You’re not the only one…”
“Has Heated Rivalry made everybody insane?!” Cooper asked. “Is this the Heated Rivalry effect?! What’s going on?!”
“I guess so,” replied Colbert.
Heated Rivalry creator, writer, director Jacob Tierney weighed in on Instagram Stories on the Cohen-Cooper-Colbert exchange in a re-post (below).
Cooper also envisioned Colbert speaking to him in Russian, as Heated Rivalry‘s Ilya Rozanov often does.
The duo revisited Heated Rivalry yet again in an interview with lesbian singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile in a segment titled “Do! Lesbians! Give a damn?!”
Cohen asked Carlile if “lesbians care about Heated Rivalry, or is it just the strictly dickly?
Carlile deadpanned: “It’s all I can think about. I can’t even sleep at night without thinking about it.”
Cohen asked “Really?” and Cooper followed with the same question, prompting laughs among the three. You can watch the exchange below.