{"id":158963,"date":"2026-02-10T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=158963"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:44:00","slug":"heated-rivalry-reached-10-6-million-viewers-in-the-united-states-after-its-first-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/heated-rivalry-reached-10-6-million-viewers-in-the-united-states-after-its-first-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Heated Rivalry reached 10.6 million viewers in the United States after its first season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<strong>Heated Rivalry<\/strong>\u201d continues to gain popularity more than one month after the end of its first season. As of February 10, 2026, the series is averaging 10.6 million viewers per episode in the United States, according to Warner Bros. Discovery. The show is produced by the Canadian streamer <strong>Crave<\/strong> and is available in the United States via<strong> HBO Max<\/strong>. The show premiered in November 2025 and quickly became a viral hit, with each new episode attracting a larger audience than the previous one. Heated Rivalry\u2019s season finale, released on December 26, 2025, recorded an audience increase of more than 300 percent compared to the show\u2019s premiere week.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ADi1iextoUM?si=ccPWVee2hU_j4O1Y\" title=\"Official Trailer | Heated Rivalry (Crave Original)\" width=\"1240\" height=\"698\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ADi1iextoUM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The series is based on the \u201c<strong>Game Changers<\/strong>\u201d book series written by Rachel Reid. Meanwhile,\u00a0 the television adaptation takes its name from the first book in the series, which was originally published in 2019. The story follows Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, and Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie. Both characters are rising stars in professional hockey and are connected by a competitive rivalry. The pair develops a casual sexual relationship that later turns into an undercover romance, which leads them through a path of self-discovery and love.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheWrap\/status\/2021071676276965774?s=20\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">HBO Max\u2019s acquired gay hockey drama <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HeatedRivalry?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#HeatedRivalry<\/a> has drawn over 10.6 million U.S. viewers to date\u2014making it the streamer\u2019s most-watched scripted acquisition ever, with audience numbers more than doubling since its Dec. 26 finale.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/q7ZjQxkoec\">https:\/\/t.co\/q7ZjQxkoec<\/a><br \/>Photo: HBO\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P74S1BpXEQ\">pic.twitter.com\/P74S1BpXEQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TheWrap (@TheWrap) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheWrap\/status\/2021071676276965774?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">February 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Over the course of eight years in the story, Shane and Ilya try to build their careers while dealing with their feelings for each other. The series focuses on their struggles with ambition, public pressure, and personal identity. The supporting cast includes Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Sophie N\u00e9lisse, and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova. Heated Rivalry was created by Jacob Tierney and produced by Accent Aigu Entertainment in association with Bell Media\u2019s Crave. International distribution is handled by Sphere Abacus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d continues to gain popularity more than one month after the end of its first season. As of February 10, 2026, the series is averaging 10.6 million viewers per episode in the United States, according to Warner Bros. Discovery. The show is produced by the Canadian streamer Crave and is available in the United [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":158964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,7,1441],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-158963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-news","9":"category-series"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}