If you haven't heard about "Heated Rivalry," you've probably been secluded in a cottage somewhere in the woods north of Ottawa.
For everyone else with a social-media account, it has been virtually impossible to miss the buzz about the HBO Max series depicting a secret gay romance between two rival professional hockey players.
The six-episode limited series tells the story of Russian Ilya Rozanov (portrayed by actor Connor Storrie) and Canadian Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), who are selected with the first two picks of the 2009 draft in the fictional Major League Hockey. While the two are depicted publicly as hated rivals, the pair develop a steamy off-ice romance that the show tracks over the course of their hockey careers.
Based on a series of books by Rachel Reid and created by Jacob Tierney, the show became a quick hit for HBO in the United States and Crave in Canada. With little promotion, it debuted slowly with just 30 million streaming minutes in its first week on HBO Max, according to the New York Times. By the last week of December, that number had climbed tenfold to 324 million minutes. The Times also reported two-thirds of viewers were female during the first week of January.
“It is clearly a word-of-mouth sensation," HBO and Max Content CEO Casey Bloys told the Times.
One person who got the word was NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
“I’ve watched all six episodes. I binged it in one night,” Bettman told reporters in Washington last week.
“I thought the storyline was very compelling and a lot of fun, because I could (see) where they were picking at things that we had in the past, whether it was (the Winter Olympics) in Sochi or the All-Star Game in Tampa. It was very well-done.”
As the show has introduced new audiences to hockey, fans have been clamoring for merchandise.
The Ottawa Senators recently began selling jerseys for both players in the Hollander and Rozanov Collection, with proceeds going toward Ottawa Pride Hockey. The team is offering Senators jerseys with Hollander's No. 24 and Rozanov's No. 81 in home, road and alternate styles.
The e-commerce site at HeatedRivalry.com, which is not registered to HBO, is selling jerseys, hoodies, T-shirts, pennants and more for Hollander's Montreal Metros, Rozanov's Boston Raiders and as well as the New York Admirals, the team led by another lead character, Scott Hunter.
The site also features hats from the show's most popular catchphrases, including "I'm coming to the cottage," "Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird," and "Do you like tuna melts?"
Then there is the secondary market.
Etsy is filled with hundreds of unlicensed products, and an eBay search for "Heated Rivalry" returns more than 1,200 results. TeePublic and Redbubble are also filled with offerings from individual creators.
The show has been renewed for a second season by HBO and Crave, with filming expected to begin this summer.
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Kevin Jackson is the chief content officer for cllct. He spent 25 years at ESPN Digital Media, where he was the founding editor of Page 2, and nearly four years as the Executive Director for Digital Content at FOX Sports.