{"id":289592,"date":"2026-02-10T00:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289592\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:31:07","slug":"heated-rivalry-audience-more-than-doubles-viewership-post-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289592\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heated Rivalry’ Audience More Than Doubles Viewership Post-Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust over two months ago, few people had heard of Heated Rivalry<\/a>. Now? It\u2019s HBO Max<\/a>\u2018s top acquired scripted series ever.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros Discovery said Monday that the series has surpassed 10.6M U.S. viewers, having more than doubled its viewership since the finale<\/a> arrived on December 26.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series, which comes from Canadian studio Crave, was swiftly renewed<\/a> after Season 1 debuted to far more fanfare than anyone might have expected. The very modest series about a romance between two closeted gay hockey players posted consistent week-over-week growth throughout the first season\u2019s run on HBO Max, Warner Bros Discovery said. In fact, the company says the finale delivered four times the audience of the premiere.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince then, stars Hudson Williams<\/a> and Connor Storrie<\/a> have done myriad press appearances, carried the Olympic torch<\/a> and presented at the Golden Globes. And Storrie will host Saturday Night Live<\/a> on February 28. All the buzz appears to be paying off, given these latest numbers from WBD.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: With NHL Players No Longer Iced Out, Olympics Men\u2019s Hockey Tournament Will Be A Power Play In Milan-Cortina<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCreated by Canadian writer-director-producer Jacob Tierney (Letterkenny,\u00a0Shoresy<\/a>) and based on Rachel Reid\u2019s bestselling book series Game Changers, the six-episode hourlong romantic drama tells the story of rival pro hockey players Shane Hollander (Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Storrie).<\/p>\n

\n\tThey are two of the biggest stars in Major League Hockey, tied together by their ambition, rivalry and a magnetic pull neither of them understands. They begin a secret fling as rookies that morphs into a long journey of love, denial and self-discovery during the next eight years. They\u2019re forced to decide if there is room for love in their fiercely competitive world.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series is distributed internationally by Sphere Abacus, which is owned by Canadian producer Sphere Media and the primary distributor of programming from Bell, which is also a stakeholder in the UK-based company.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Exec Teases Possible Bonus Episode For Holidays: \u201cCan\u2019t Rush The Process\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Olympian Gus Kenworthy Says He Was \u201cSo Moved\u201d By \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 & How It Paralleled His Experience: \u201cThat Was Me For So Many Years\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019s Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud Says NHL Is \u201cGood At Capitalizing\u201d On Show, Hopes They Can \u201cBack It Up\u201d With Support<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over two months ago, few people had heard of Heated Rivalry. Now? It\u2019s HBO Max\u2018s top acquired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[121886,93,3286,105687,117598,61,60,282,15263],"class_list":{"0":"post-289592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-connor-storrie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-hbo-max","11":"tag-heated-rivalry","12":"tag-hudson-williams","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-tv-ratings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289592","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=289592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}