The immediate and passionate success of Heated Rivalry is monumental in its own right, but even more amazing when you consider when it all happened. The show debuted on November 28 — the Thanksgiving holiday weekend here in the US — and the final episode aired December 26 — the day after Christmas. People are BUSY between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and still made time for the little TV show that could! (Me included, I watched each week!) And this whole time, series’ breakout stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams have been the epitome of grace, humility, and enthusiasm in promoting the show and navigating the instant fame. It has to be quite the adjustment, as it feels like fans of Heated Rivalry are giving Connor and Hudson boy band-level adoration not often directed towards unknown TV actors. Connor appeared on the Today show last week (all episodes have aired and the boys are still on a media blitz!), and shed light on how surreal the experience has been, right from the get-go: he almost got fired from his waiter job the same day he landed the role of Ilya Rozanov!
To say Heated Rivalry has changed Connor Storrie’s life is quite the understatement.
Just eight months ago, the Texas-born actor’s life was completely different. “I was working at a restaurant, I worked at restaurants for eight years,” Storrie, 25, said on the Today show on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
In fact, he said, “The day that I found out that I had booked Heated Rivalry, I actually almost got fired from my restaurant.”
He said he “messed up a table so bad” and “got a horrible review” and had to own up to it in front of all the staff. “They read it at our pre-shift, they were like, ‘I need everyone to hear this, to know it’s not up to our standard.’”
Storrie got his “last warning” as a result of the review, which meant he was at risk of losing his job. “Then I looked down at my phone on my break, and I had a missed call, and I got it [the part].”
Since the show — which was filmed in just over a month in mid-2025 — premiered, life for Storrie and his costar Hudson Williams has been “shocking,” Storrie told Interview Magazine in December 2025.
“All of this has been so cool,” he said. “There’s so many things that get made, and online we have access to so many opinions that I fully prepared myself before anything happened — I was fully prepared for nothing to really come of this.”
He knew the show would “be a really beautiful moment for fans of the books, but it has since transcended that,” Storrie said.
“Anything on top of that is a total blessing, cherry on top of the cake. And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”
The series, which was adapted from Rachel Reid’s book of the same name, follows rival hockey players Ilya Rozanov (Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Williams), as they navigate a years-long, secret love affair while competing against each other at the professional level.
It was renewed for a second season on Dec. 12, and Reid told PEOPLE, “I can’t tell you how much the love my characters have received over the years means to me.”
They filmed the show in just over a month?! That rapid timeline is impressive for a small indie film, but for a six-episode series?? Dang, that whole team worked their butts off! And not only that, but that was a seriously streamlined post-production as well for the show to be ready to air mere months later. On average, a movie will have about a year between filming and release. As Connor well knows: I didn’t realize he was in Joker: Folie à Deux — who did, no one saw that movie! — in a small but pivotal role towards the end that he had to keep secret for two years. Can you imagine telling Connor Storrie back in his struggling actor waiter days, that his big break would be not from the comic book film starring Academy Award winners, but a tiny underdog male romance hockey series starring unknowns? It’s wild. As for Connor’s account of turning in an epically bad performance as a waiter, I need more details on what exactly he f–ked up on in that moment! Maybe he’s saving that for another talk show appearance. As for the timing of landing a dream role the same day you make a mess of your day job, sometimes things are just kismet.
Photos credit: @NikoTyler/Backgrid, Roger Wong/INSTARimages, C Flanigan/imageSPACE/MediaPunch/INSTARimages, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
It’s been lovely to watch Connor and Hudson both on their press tours. They’re funny and sweet. It’s been a breath of fresh air to see two talented unknowns become successful. I’m not one that is necessarily anti-nepo baby but it really hits you when you see people that are actually young and real and working in restaurants to get by as opposed to being the kid of a famous person. Nothing against those actors bc a lot of them are really good. But the vibe is different if that makes sense. It would be great if the lesson could be cast more unknown actors and give them a chance.
I love this show and can’t wait for next season! They are both so great on the show. So happy for all their success!
It’s a great story – The Hollywood stereotypical unknown to star dream. 🙂
I don’t think that anyone in the production team, including all of the actors, expected this level of mania. After all, it was a very small production, for a small Canadian streamer on a small budget and there’s a lot of very explicit sex. Even more of a red flag, queer sex. Expectations were very low. The source material was good. It had a fan following, yes, but it was niche. The scripts were good. I think both unknown leads were drawn to the storyline and the script. That outweighed any trepidation they might have had about being in a queer role. They needed work. The script was good. It was not expected to make any kind of a splash. It would be a stepping stone. Why not?
Of course it didn’t turn out that way. It blew up and made them overnight stars. I’m happy for everyone involved.
Ya I think it’s important that people remember that this is Canadian production: they had initially tried to work with a big US streamer but they gave too many notes and wanted to cut out all intimacy until Episode 5, and Jacob Tierney was like “no way, I’ll do this at home where I can do this right.” And he did! HBO bought streaming rights at last minute, but let’s be clear, Heated Rivalry is all Crave Canada and its team. I love that they are all seeing so much success now, even if the fandom has gone a bit crazy.
Yup, they filmed the whole thing in 36 or 37 days. And apparently they might go back to film Season 2 this summer? So happy for them and all their well deserved success, the show is amazing!