‘Heated Rivalry’ is a steamy export from a frigid place

0:00Heated rivalry is a steamy export from a frigid place. Hi everyone, it's Jeff and this is Plain English Episode 843 on Monday, March 2nd, 2026. Here at Plain English, we tell stories that help you learn about the world. But just as important, you get to learn new vocabulary and new ways of expressing ideas. And if you like the story, you can get great English practice with this story online. You can get that at PlainEnglish.com slash 843, that's because this is episode number 843. And what is episode 843 all about? Heated rivalry. It's the hit gay romance show on HBO Max, one of the most successful global shows this year.

1:02But its success was not guaranteed or even foretold. Today, you'll learn how hard it was for Jacob Tierney, the producer, to even make this show. That's today's episode. Remember, JR has uploaded the full episode to PlainEnglish.com slash 843. Before we start today's story, I'd just like to remind you that the podcast is just one part of how we can help you upgrade your English skills. At PlainEnglish.com, you can make faster progress with active learning strategies. You can take quizzes, do activities, listen to the fast version of the audio, watch video workshops, practice what you learn, and even join a live call with JR and me. It's all about helping you build your skills to become a better, more confident English speaker.

2:05Sound good? Go to PlainEnglish.com to start your free 14 day trial today. Now, let's jump into today's story. In 2023, Jacob Tierney, a Canadian writer, director, and producer, approached major US streaming platforms with an idea. He wanted to adapt the novel, He Did Rivalry, into a TV series. He Did Rivalry was a romance novel about two male hockey players who play against each other in a professional hockey league and eventually fall in love. The series, as Tierney pitched it, would include explicit sex scenes between the two men. You can see why the streaming executives and financiers had their doubts.

3:10A gay hockey romance doesn't exactly scream mass appeal. For one thing, hockey isn't a top tier sport. It's only the fifth most popular sport in the US, the biggest streaming market, and its appeal around the world is limited to a handful of cold weather places. Not only that, but the source material was a romance novel. As a genre, romance doesn't get much respect in Hollywood. It's considered predictable and formulaic. The central relationship would be between two men, and while there are gay characters and relationships on television, a show with a gay romance at its core, explicit scenes included, would probably not have the same appeal as a traditional series.

4:13The executives listening to Jacob Tierney's pitch didn't say no exactly, but they didn't say yes either. They told him that they would finance his show only if he made substantial changes to the concept. Tierney, who his gay himself, said no, he would try his luck with a smaller producer. He struck a deal with Crave, a Canadian streamer. Crave made the sixth episode series for less than $3 million Canadian dollars per episode, a modest budget for a series like this. But the product was excellent. The show had emotional depth, genuine conflict, beautiful scenery, and a cross-cultural love story that appealed to gay and straight audiences alike.

5:14It was ready to air in November 2025 when a funny thing happened. Someone at HBO Max saw an advance copy of the show and wanted to get in on the action. Just nine days before the series was released on Crave in Canada, HBO Max paid Crave and Tierney for the rights to distribute the show in the United States and Australia. The show quickly became a hit. Crave's viewership grew 400% in the first week, making heated rivalry the most successful show in the Canadian platform's history. It also found success outside Hockey Mad Canada. It became HBO Max's top streaming show in the United States, passing even adaptations of Stephen King novels. The entertainment industry

6:20was shocked at the show's success, but maybe it shouldn't have been. Think back to all the reasons American executives might not have liked the original concept. It was based on a romance novel. It had gay sex scenes. It was about hockey of all sports. Who cares about hockey? Each of these was a reason on the surface not to like the proposal, but each also held a clue to the show's eventual success. Romance novels may not get much respect in Hollywood, but romance novels sell. Romance is the largest fiction genre by sales in North America, outselling mystery science fiction and literary fiction combined. Rachel Reed's 2019 novel

7:21heated rivalry hit bestseller lists. The book is just one of six in a series called Game Changers, and it's not the only one to be a bestseller. So clearly this story resonated beyond hockey fans and the gay community. Next, gay romance stories have a peel far beyond gay audiences, and that goes for novels and television dramas. It's true that you don't see many steamy male-male romance scenes on mainstream western streamers, but this type of content is popular in Asia, and do you know who likes to watch them? Young, primarily straight women. Male-male romance has been on television in Asia for years. The genre started in Japan in the 1970s

8:22and quickly spread to China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. In Thailand, for example, there are dozens of male-male romance series made each year, and the women love it. Even the hockey might have helped the series succeed. A gay romance about a popular sport, like Champions League Soccer or American Football, might have seemed implausible, but most viewers don't know hockey very well, so they could get lost in the story without worrying about whether it was realistic. Heated rivalry exceeded all expectations. Tierney, the producer, didn't compromise on his idea. The Canadian streamer Crave gave him the creative freedom that he needed to make an outstanding, bold, risky show.

9:27HBO Max came late to the party. We don't know if they were among the streamers who initially passed on the project, but they have sure benefited from the show's popularity now that they have the rights to distribute it. After seeing heated rivalries success in Canada, Australia, and the United States, HBO Max scrambled to get distribution rights for the rest of the world. Viewers across Asia, Latin America, and Europe can watch it on HBO Max or local streamers. The show's impact has gone beyond television. Canada is experiencing a boom of interest in all things heated rivalry. Shane's cottage has inspired a lot of interest. It's a large house on a

10:34lake, about 140 kilometers from Toronto. The cottage features exposed wood beams, a central granite fireplace, and enormous glass windows facing the lake. It's at once exposed because of the windows and intimate because of how isolated it is, making it the perfect setting for episode 6. The architect Trevor McIver has been fielding requests for custom-designed cottages, just like the one in the show. Now, I have to say, if I had an extra $2 million Canadian dollars for a lake house, I'd want one just like that. Even a fleece jacket that appeared in just a handful of scenes is now a collector's item. It was a white zip-up fleece that Shane wore during the

11:36Sochi Olympics. The jacket was made just for the show. It was not worn by actual Canadian athletes in 2014, but thousands of people signed a petition requesting that the fleece be offered for sale. A Canadian company is now making replicas of the jackets and donating part of the proceeds to charity. The show's costume designer can't explain the jacket's success. You can never figure out what the public is going to decide is worth attention, she said. It's been funny listening to interviews about the show. The actor who played the Russian hockey player Ilia is named Connor Story. He's American, born and raised. He speaks without any accent, whatsoever, but his character speaks in heavily accented English and he even has an extended monologue

12:41in Russian. So he had to study Russian for the show, which I thought was incredible. And he had that accent for the entire show. Now, I obviously don't speak a word of Russian, but his accent convinced me. Well, that's all for us here at Plain English. This was Episode 843. So remember, you can get the full episode and exercises at PlainEnglish.com slash 843. See you back here Thursday for another expression, and we'll be back in your feed on Monday with a new story. Listen up if you speak Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, or Turkish. One of the most frustrating things about listening and reading in a second

13:42language is being confused by unfamiliar words or phrases. When you listen to Plain English or when you read the transcript, you probably encounter some words you don't know. When that happens, you have a few options. You can stop the audio, go look up the definition, then return to the episode, find your place, and press play again, but that's exhausting. Or you can just skip it and be confused. That's no fun either. But what if you could see the translation of the word into your language instantly without having to stop the audio, without having to look anything up? Well, you can at PlainEnglish.com. For each episode, we translate about 100 words and phrases from

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