Heated Rivalry may’ve been a really totally different present if the workforce behind the variation hadn’t been unwilling to compromise on their imaginative and prescient.
François Arnaud—who performs Scott Hunter on the present—revealed throughout his Tuesday, January 13, look on CBS Mornings that collection creator Jacob Tierney refused to tone down the steamy content material from Rachel Reid’s 2019 romance e-book.
“I don’t suppose this present may have been made within the U.S.,” the actor, 40, mentioned. “It was arrange at a giant streamer earlier than, they usually had so many notes and so many ideas on what that present might be that Jacob determined to depart them and get it made in Canada.”
Based on Arnaud, one of many stipulations from the streaming community—which he didn’t establish by identify—was a requirement for “no kissing till episode 5” of the primary season’s six installments. As an alternative, as soon as Tierney took the mission to Canadian streaming platform Crave, he opted to embrace the intimacy of the characters from the time of the collection premiere.
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Whereas the transfer led to a “a lot smaller price range” for the variation, Tierney was given extra inventive management over the present.
“I believe that’s what persons are responding to and I believe in a manner it’s an enormous lesson for Hollywood individuals,” Arnaud added. “That is, like, a distinct segment present, no film stars and it’s a [big] sensation.”
Heated Rivalry facilities across the star-crossed romance between rival skilled hockey gamers Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Since its November 2025 premiere, the collection has grow to be an plain phenomenon and been renewed for season 2.
Regardless of Tierney’s unwillingness to concede to calls for concerning the present’s stage of intimacy, Reid beforehand insisted that one side from her standard novel “needed to be modified” for the TV adaptation.
“[Shane and Ilya’s] first time having intercourse, the choice was made to maneuver that to the second episode to not have all the pieces within the first episode,” she informed Immediately.com in December 2025. “So due to that, the snowstorm was added to the primary episode to delay their assembly. After which the Vegas rooftop occurred. After which, sure, two seasons go by the place Ilya is simply relentlessly texting Shane.”
“Within the e-book, they’re hooking up at the moment as a result of they’ve already had intercourse. However clearly we will’t skip that first time,” she continued. “Jacob mentioned that is all my fault as a result of I didn’t describe what occurred in these two seasons within the e-book. However I used to be like, no, it’s your fault for shifting it to the second episode.”
Whatever the altered timing, Reid applauded Tierney for selecting to keep up the spice from her books.
“Jacob took it very severely. Like, extra severely than romance ever will get taken,” she famous. “I hope it’s going to alter the way in which romance will get filmed. I don’t suppose anyone thought you would truly take a excessive warmth romance and actually movie it, you recognize? And he did. And I get the identical feeling watching this that I get from studying a excessive warmth romance. There’s nothing totally different about it, it’s all proper there. I believe that’s actually courageous.”
