Since its release in November, Heated Rivalry has gone from a word-of-mouth sensation in North America and Canada to a global phenomenon, propelling its lead stars, Storrie and Hudson Williams, from obscurity to global celebrities<\/a>.<\/p>\n Storrie, 25, who plays a closeted gay ice hockey player<\/a> who strikes up an unlikely romance with his opponent in the Crave\/Max program, will make his debut as host on SNL on February 28, alongside British rock band Mumford & Sons, who will join as musical guests.<\/p>\n Fans of Heated Rivalry are seemingly elated by the announcement, with one fan writing under SNL\u2019s Instagram post: \u201cI\u2019m literally going to implode.\u201d<\/p>\n Another fan said: \u201cThis is @nbcsnl truly giving the American people what they want and deserve!! This is going to be such an incredible episode, one for the history books!!\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Connor Storrie has become a global celebrity after the success of the gay hockey romance show \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 (AFP via Getty Images) open image in gallery<\/p>\n Connor Storrie will host his first \u2018SNL\u2019 installment after finding fame on \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 (NBC)<\/p>\n \u201cGOD WORKS FAST BUT SNL WORKS FASTER,\u201d joked another commenter, as one person remarked: \u201cHeated Rivalry stars\u2019 fast rise to fame NEEDS TO BE STUDIED THIS IS INCREDIBLE HOW THEY’RE BOTH BOOKED AND BUSY IN JUST TWO MONTHS!!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n Heated Rivalry, which follows two closeted gay and bisexual professional hockey players, played by Storrie and his co-star Williams, as they grapple with how their romance will affect their careers, has taken the internet by storm<\/a> and rocked the ice hockey community.<\/p>\n The booking continues a high-profile season for NBC\u2019s long-running sketch series, which has leaned heavily into championing first-time hosts, including Finn Wolfhard, Teyana Taylor and Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd, with musical guests A$AP Rocky, Geese and Cardi B.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams in \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 (HBO)<\/p>\n This season has also had notable changes, with breakout star Bowen Yang leaving the show earlier this year, as well as a major cast shakeup that saw Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner and Devon Walker all leave the series. New additions to the cast included Ben Marshall, Veronika Slowikowska, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane and Kam Patterson.<\/p>\n Heated Rivalry\u2019s success has seen Storrie and Williams emerge from the periphery into mainstream success, having been invited to present at awards shows and make red carpet appearances as awards season gets into full swing.<\/p>\n This weekend\u2019s SNL episode saw former cast member Pete Davidson return to the show to channel border czar Tom Homan<\/a> for a cold open sketch<\/a> rallying a group of federal immigration agents during a pep talk set in Minneapolis<\/a>. <\/p>\n Elsewhere, Skarsg\u00e5rd served as host, with his sketches including a fake Winter Olympics promo, a skit about a band of emotional Vikings and an episode of \u201cImmigrant Dad Talk Show\u201d alongside his dad, Stellan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-276646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2255276710.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-01-at-19-30-51.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TV-Heated_Rivalry_21264.jpg\")
<\/p>\n