{"id":382548,"date":"2026-01-02T01:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382548\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T01:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:05:11","slug":"heated-rivalry-author-star-react-to-andy-cohen-anderson-cooper-banter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/382548\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heated Rivalry’ Author & Star React To Andy Cohen & Anderson Cooper Banter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHeated Rivalry<\/a>\u2018s Robbie G.K. and Game Changers book series author Rachel Reid didn\u2019t miss Andy Cohen<\/a> and Anderson Cooper<\/a>\u2018s live TV riffing of the popular Canadian drama series during CNN\u2019s live New Year\u2019s Eve special Wednesday night. The show clearly became an obsession throughout the night.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmid 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tCooper told Cohen there was \u201csomething about sleeping in your bed\u2026 It just, I don\u2019t know,\u201d suggesting he didn\u2019t feel quite right about it and wouldn\u2019t sleep in it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe bed\u00a0frame,\u201d Cohen interjected. \u201cI didn\u2019t give you the mattress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCooper insisted, \u201cWell, I know. But I don\u2019t know. I just\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCooper 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought that it made us like closer,\u201d Cohen teased Cooper. \u201cLike better brothers, or something,\u201d to which Cooper laughingly replied,\u201dThis isn\u2019t\u00a0Heated Rivalry.\u201d And from there, the banter took off, with the two debating who would play Ilya and who would play Shane, the show\u2019s leads, with Cohen asserting to Cooper, \u201cYou\u2019re Ilya, and I\u2019m Shane.\u201d Cooper reacted quickly, saying \u201cWhat?! I\u201dm not either of them. I\u2019m Kip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReid, who authored the Game Changers book series on which Heated Rivalry is based, reposted an image on her Instagram Stories of Cohen and Cooper\u2019s back-and-forth with the caption, \u201cI keep thinking nothing can surprise me at this point, but\u2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tRobbie G.K., who plays Kip on the show, also posted the exchange.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeated 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tCanadian streamer\u00a0Crave<\/a> recently greenlighted a second season of the steamy ice hockey drama, with HBO Max<\/a>\u00a0again taking rights in the U.S. and Australia and Sky in the UK and Ireland. The drama is now Crave\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tCohen and Cooper also chatted with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, along with Colbert\u2019s wife, Evelyn McGee-Colbert.<\/p>\n

\n\tCohen teased Cooper saying that that Evelyn \u201cis the top of their relationship, I found out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh my god, what is that\u2026 What?\u201d a confused-looking Cooper asked Cohen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d Stephen Colbert replied, \u201cbut I\u2019m a bossy bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCohen exclaimed, \u201cYes! Stephen Colbert is a bossy bottom,\u201d then pointed at Cooper, looking into the camera saying: \u201cYou\u2019re not the only one\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHas Heated Rivalry made everybody insane?!\u201d Cooper asked. \u201cIs this the\u00a0Heated Rivalry\u00a0effect?! What\u2019s going on?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI guess so,\u201d replied Colbert.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeated Rivalry creator, writer, director Jacob Tierney weighed in on Instagram Stories on the Cohen-Cooper-Colbert exchange in a re-post (below).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tCooper also envisioned Colbert speaking to him in Russian, as Heated Rivalry\u2018s Ilya Rozanov often does.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe duo revisited Heated Rivalry yet again in an interview with lesbian singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile in a segment titled \u201cDo! Lesbians! Give a damn?!\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tCohen asked Carlile if \u201clesbians care about\u00a0Heated Rivalry, or is it just the\u00a0strictly dickly?<\/p>\n

\n\tCarlile deadpanned: \u201cIt\u2019s all I can think about. I can\u2019t even sleep at night without thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCohen asked \u201cReally?\u201d and Cooper followed with the same question, prompting laughs among the three. You can watch the exchange below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heated Rivalry\u2018s Robbie G.K. and Game Changers book series author Rachel Reid didn\u2019t miss Andy Cohen and Anderson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[47632,21174,49,48,75,140293],"class_list":["post-382548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-anderson-cooper","tag-andy-cohen","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-heated-rivalry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}