From bartenders to icons.
When Heated Rivalry premiered on 28 November on HBO Max, it looked like a niche project, an adaptation of a series of romantic novels about two professional ice hockey players who keep their relationship secret. Within weeks it became an international phenomenon, ranking among the most watched series in the United States and Australia. One episode came close to a perfect 9.9 rating on IMDb, and critics began to describe it as one of the key titles of the new wave of queer television, with The New York Times calling it “the next frontier of gay culture”. In Spain it arrives this Thursday, 5 February, on Movistar Plus+ under the title ‘Más que rivales‘.
But the show’s success cannot be understood without its stars. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams went from being virtually unknown actors, with small roles and bar jobs to pay the rent, to becoming two of the most talked-about faces of the moment. Their real breakthrough came at the Golden Globes, where, despite not being nominated, they stole the spotlight by presenting an award and joking about the show’s nude scenes in front of millions of viewers.
Since then, their presence has gone far beyond Hollywood. They have been invited to sports, cultural and fashion events usually reserved for established stars, from carrying the Olympic torch to walking the runway in Milan. More than their sculpted bodies, what stands out is the image they project: two young, sensitive men who are reshaping how masculinity is seen in sport and in popular culture.
Why women cannot look away
What is most striking is not just their success, but who has turned the show into a cult. Since its release, one of the biggest trends on TikTok and Instagram has been women of all ages filming themselves reacting to the show’s sex scenes and emotional confessions. As El País reports, teenagers, middle-aged women, lesbians and heterosexuals alike seem to share a collective obsession with a story that, in theory, is not about anyone who could be “for them”.
This attraction is neither strange nor new. A study by Middlesex University, cited by El País, found that 82 per cent of women who watch pornography prefer scenes between men. Researcher Lucy Neville explains that many do so because straight porn often turns women into objects and pushes them to compare themselves with unrealistic bodies. Watching two men, by contrast, allows them to enjoy eroticism without feeling judged. That is exactly what Heated Rivalry offers: not a power fantasy, but a story about two people who desire each other, care for one another and meet on equal terms.
For years it was assumed that an actor lost appeal if he came out as gay, but today the opposite is true. Many people find it more attractive because it shows honesty and courage, as El País explains. That is why many women also fantasise about stars like Shawn Mendes or Harry Styles in queer stories, not just for the sex, but because they see relationships that feel more equal and emotionally open.
The new fan club is in government
It is normal for a series to become popular, but rare for it to enter the political life of two countries. That is exactly what has happened with Heated Rivalry. At the end of January, Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney appeared on a red carpet in Ottawa alongside Hudson Williams. According to CBC and the EFE news agency, the actor gave him a Team Canada jacket worn by his character and draped it over the prime minister’s suit as they joked for the cameras.
The moment carried a political message. Carney praised the show’s director Jacob Tierney for choosing to film the series in Canada after US studios had asked him to tone it down. CBC quoted the prime minister saying he had done “the right thing” and “the smart thing”. A head of government publicly supporting such an explicit LGBTQ+ series was a statement of cultural pride.
In the United States, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani also joined in by recommending people read Heated Rivalry, the novel by Rachel Reid on which the series is based, during a major snowstorm, taking advantage of the New York Public Library offering it for free in print and audiobook form until Valentine’s Day.
In Canada, Ottawa City Council went even further by declaring 29 January “Shane Hollander Day”, after Hudson Williams’s character, according to local media and Bell Media. That a love story between two ice hockey players should receive this level of official recognition shows how the series has become more than entertainment. It now carries real cultural weight.
From ice to the Olympic flame
At the end of January, Heated Rivalry made the leap from streaming to the world’s biggest sporting stage. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams were invited by the International Olympic Committee to take part in the official torch relay for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in the alpine town of Feltre.
Dressed in the official white tracksuits with pink and yellow details, the two actors passed the flame between them in front of cheering fans. “This is crazy,” Williams said as dozens of phones recorded the moment. It summed up their meteoric rise from unknown actors to faces of one of the world’s biggest events.
The choice was no accident. The series revolves around two ice hockey stars, one of the core sports of the Winter Olympics, and the IOC used that link to connect with a younger, more digital audience. The torch, which left Rome on 4 December and has passed through cities such as Florence, Palermo and Pompeii before reaching Milan on 6 February, is usually carried by athletes and major celebrities like Jackie Chan or Olympic champion Eileen Gu. That it is now being carried by two actors from a series about hockey and gay love shows how sport is beginning to open up to realities that were once invisible.
From rink to runway
The Heated Rivalry phenomenon has also reached fashion. On 16 January, Hudson Williams made his modelling debut by opening the Dsquared2 show at Milan Fashion Week, becoming one of the most talked-about moments of the week. The collection by designers Dean and Dan Caten, inspired by winter sports and snowy landscapes, found a perfect match in the actor who plays a hockey star.
Just days earlier, both actors had dominated headlines at the Golden Globes, and now one of them was leading a Milan catwalk under a set designed to look like a winter landscape. The impact was immediate, confirming that Williams and Storrie are now more than cult-series actors.
In the end, the success of Heated Rivalry is not just about a television show or two suddenly famous actors. It reflects a change in how people want to see love and relationships on screen. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams are not popular because they are perfect heart-throbs, but because they show men who are open, sensitive and imperfect. And this week, when the series arrives on Movistar Plus+ in Spain, it will not just be another trend, but a story that taps into something very simple and very current: the desire to see relationships that are fairer, closer and more human.
Why are Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams the most searched-for TV couple on the internet?
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