It’s worth remembering that the list of people who did not see the Heated Rivalry phenomenon coming is one that goes up to, and includes, series creator, showrunner, and director Jacob Tierney. The Letterkenny and Shoresy alum was, after all, right in the midst of still making the Crave hockey romance’s first season when its U.S. streaming rights were sold to HBO Max, kicking off a tidal wave of interest and acclaim. (In fact, the show’s release in both countries was accelerated when executives at the Canadian streamer started getting the in-hindsight highly accurate sense that the show might do crazy numbers if it landed in people’s laps in the midst of the holiday TV-watching season.) Tierney—who says he had many networks and streamers express initial interest in the series but then back away when they realized how sincere he was about the show’s approach to romance and sex—was as caught off-guard as anybody that his “gay steamy hockey romance” was becoming an international sensation.
Not that he’s not coming to terms with the fresh demand now: Tierney has just given a bit of fresh clarity about when fans of the series might expect to get back on the proverbial ice, stating in an interview with CBS Mornings this week that the series will be back “as soon as humanly possible.” (Which apparently translates to something like “shooting the new season in the fall of 2026, and then releasing it in the spring of 2027.”) Tierney’s fellow executive producer Brendan Brady, meanwhile, leaned a little harder into the show’s vibes, jokingly encouraging fans to “enjoy the yearn” as they wait for more episodes to arrive.
Heated Rivalry is based off author Rachel Reid’s’ Game Changers series of books; shocking nobody, Canadian streamer Crave announced the show was getting a second season back in December, before the first had even finished airing. The new season will reportedly be based off of 2019’s The Long Game, a direct sequel to Heated Rivalry. (Reid was expected to release a third book centered on Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s hockey-adjacent romance later this year, but announced a few days ago that the book would be delayed owing to both worsening symptoms from her Parkinson’s Disease, as well as the general insane reality of going from “very popular romance novelist” to “insanely famous basis for the planet’s hottest show” over the course of a couple of months.) As for the show’s timing, Tierney noted back in December of 2025 that “It can’t be same time next year, because this time last year I’d written five of these, and this time this year I’ve written zero of them,” adding that “I don’t want to put out a rushed shitty second season just because the show is very popular.” But, he promised, “It’s still going to be soon.”
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