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‘Heated Rivalry’ series mixes hockey and queer romance and is scoring big audiences

On Friday, Heated Rivalry on HBO Max heads into its finale after debuting over Thanksgiving and dominating social feeds since, originally developed for Crave and boosted by creators like Josh Banfield.
Rachel Reid's Game Changers six-novel series provided the source material and has sold 650,000 copies, following Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov's decade-long secret relationship challenging hockey homophobia.
Casting Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams proved pivotal, with Jacob Tierney and Rachel Reid praising their chemistry and fans lauding Williams's emotional performance and the slow-burn romance, Banfield noted.
Fans' enthusiasm is translating into renewed attention and commercial impact, as romance readers and fans seek queer protagonists and the Game Changers books boost recognition of romance audiences.
Despite welcome representation, some industry voices remain skeptical about lasting change as producers cast Shane as Asian to diversify a mostly white, heterosexual hockey romance genre, Leah Koch said she doubts one hit will open mainstream doors despite customer demand.

Insights by Ground AI