{"id":108296,"date":"2026-01-22T06:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/108296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:32:13","slug":"a-heated-rivalry-look-alike-contest-is-happening-in-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/108296\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘Heated Rivalry’ look-alike contest is happening in New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re anything like us, you are absolutely still at the cottage<\/a>. Following its November premiere, Heated Rivalry emerged as one of the year\u2019s most beloved shows \u2014 spawning a devoted and often feral fandom that transcends both age and gender.<\/p>\n

Now, two Heated Rivalry fans are taking their fandom \u2014 and perpetual yearning \u2014 one step further in New York City, where they\u2019ll be hosting a Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov look-alike contest.<\/p>\n

Hosted by fans Katherine Gehring and Charlotte Steinblatt, the upcoming Heated Rivalry look-alike contest will take place on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. ET in Washington Square Park. The goal of the contest, according to Gehring and Steinblatt\u2019s Partiful invite<\/a>, is to \u201cfind the best nyc local knockoff of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov to give the girls, the gays, and theys something to yearn for in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

A look-alike contest felt destined to happen, considering the internet\u2019s newfound obsession with \u201cgay hockey smut\u201d and the show\u2019s leading men, actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. The two star in Heated Rivalry as rival hockey players Hollander and Rozanov, who become swept up in a whirlwind, years-long gay romance.<\/p>\n

What starts off as casual, closeted meetups is soon complicated by real feelings \u2014 and the threat of losing everything because of them. Throughout the first season, Hollander and Rozanov assume alter egos \u2014 female names \u2014 to hide their identities while texting one another. Hollander goes by \u201cJane\u201d and Rozanov goes by \u201cLily.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Gehring approached her to co-organize the Heated Rivalry look-alike contest, Steinblatt told Yahoo, she \u201cphysically could not say no.\u201d Steinblatt had never been a \u201cfangirl of traditional romance stories.\u201d But Heated Rivalry hits different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis series awakened something in me. I have never been as affected as deeply by or felt so passionately about a love story as this one,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is why I felt I needed to be a part of making this contest happen \u2014 to embrace community and hope. To show the fans and the people struggling with secret lives like \u2018Jane\u2019 and \u2018Lily\u2019s\u2019 that there are literally thousands of people supporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, more than 2,000 New Yorkers have indicated that they\u2019ll attend the look-alike contest, which Gehring and Steinblatt say will \u201cpay homage to inarguably the best hockey player power couple of all time.\u201d The winners will receive a $50 cash prize.<\/p>\n

A lot of good has come from the Canadian-made television show<\/a>, which is based on the Game Changer book series by romance author Rachel Reid. What Heated Rivalry does so well is depict an image of gay joy, while spotlighting the enduring reality of homophobia in professional sports associations like the National Hockey League. It\u2019s a delicate balance<\/a> to strike \u2014 yet creator Jacob Tierney seems to do so with such care.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than the turnout or exposure we get from this contest, we really just hope to show how stories and shows like these truly can bring people together,\u201d Gehring told Yahoo. \u201cI think the widespread love for this show is demonstrative of the relief we all feel being able to see queerness be represented in areas where it has historically been seen as taboo, especially in places in culture that have traditionally promoted the very same notions of hypermasculinity that have exacerbated our current cultural and political climate to where it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look-alike contests have been having a moment since 2024<\/a>, when several were held across the country in honor of A-listers like Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Pedro Pascal and Jeremy Allen White. The Marty Supreme star even surprised fans in October 2024 when he stopped by his own look-alike contest, which was also held at Washington Square Park.<\/p>\n

\"Connor<\/p>\n

Storrie and Williams in a scene from Heated Rivalry.<\/p>\n

(Sabrina Lantos\/HBO Max<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Only two months removed from Heated Rivalry\u2019s debut on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the U.S., Williams and Storrie are still coming to grips with their newfound superstardom and status as bona fide Hollywood heartthrobs. This isn\u2019t the last we\u2019ll be seeing of Hollander and Rozanov either: Heated Rivalry has already been renewed for a second season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything, all my expectations, have been f***ing put through the wringer and tested and just shat on from crazy heights,\u201d Williams told Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/a> last month of his skyrocket to fame. \u201cSo now I just take whatever this little zeitgeist, this little sensation gives me \u2014 and I try and just stay calm through it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHudson is my best friend, and I literally can\u2019t fathom doing this without him,\u201d Storrie told W Magazine<\/a>. \u201cWe were both in similar places in life before this. We quit our jobs within a day of each other. We booked this and flew out the same day. Now it\u2019s turning into two people who are being seen internationally for the first time. This has been the highlight of my life, and meeting Hudson makes that 10 times sweeter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re anything like us, you are absolutely still at the cottage. Following its November premiere, Heated Rivalry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[48785,48786,44068,48784,9,24,55,54,56,48783,15081],"class_list":{"0":"post-108296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-charlotte-steinblatt","9":"tag-connor-storrie","10":"tag-heated-rivalry","11":"tag-katherine-gehring","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-shane-hollander","18":"tag-washington-square-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}