Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams opens up about the main reason for show's huge success

Heated Rivalry might be a slow burn narrating a decade-long story, but the show's popularity has spread quicker than fire.

The HBO Max show, a steamy queer sports drama, is an adaptation of Rachel Reid's novel series of the same name. Starring Hudson Williams and Connor Storie as the leads, the steamy slow burn, one of a kind when it comes to queer stories, has managed to impress the audience.

In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams explained how even though the show's huge success was a bit of a surprise, he had always believed in it.

Keep reading to find out more about Heated Rivalry.

Hudson Williams on Heated Rivalry and the unexpected attention to the HBO Max show

The HBO Max-Crave series is heading towards its first season's finale. The show, owing to its immense popularity, has already been renewed for its second season. Heated Rivalry, a queer, steamy sports drama, follows hockey prodigy Shane Hollander (Williams) and his rival (or so they say), Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie.

The pair navigates a professional rivalry and a personal situationship for almost a decade, and the audience is eating up every single second of it. In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams talks about how even though he expected some popularity for Heated Rivalry, the extent was a surprise even for him:

"I don’t think it’s something you can prepare for. I would say to a degree it has been gradual. We saw the fans find us when we were halfway through shooting....But at the end of the day, still feels reminiscent of an overnight success. There’s no way to prepare for what this side of things looks like."

He added:

"I didn’t think it would blow up to this. I thought it’d be more of a niche fan base. Not that I think of Instagram followers or anything, but unfortunately it is sort of a metric of relevancy in actors."

Nevertheless, however unexpected, the show clicked with the audience, no longer niche, and per Williams, some factors especially contributed to it. He accepts that the fact that there are a lot of physical (intimate and not) scenes in the show contributes to some of its popularity, but for him, the script for Heated Rivalry had always been a standout, considering the Letterkenny alum Jacob Tierney was at the helm of it all:

"I think the writing is brilliant. I know there is a lot of s*x and a lot of stuff that’s sparking interest in it. There’s a very garish title. It’s not subtle in advertising. But I always thought from the moment I read [them], they are Emmy’s quality scripts, and Jacob is a brilliant writer. I’m honored to be a part of this."

He added that the fact that queer sports drama was a niche genre that was yet to be explored as much also contributed to the show's popularity. Moreover, Challengers, a queer sports film (so to speak), which rose to immense fame and set up Heated Rivalry to give the audience exactly what they wanted but couldn't get in the Zendaya starrer, per Williams:

"I [also] think queer sports hasn’t really been done too much. If Challengers was the c**ktease of it all, then our show just leans in and gets in there."

Whatever the reason may be, the Heated Rivalry audience cannot get enough of these characters, and the second season's renewal is much-welcome news.

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