{"id":2257812,"date":"2026-01-30T11:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2257812"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:31:12","slug":"heated-rivalry-can-single-handedly-save-the-entertainment-industry-the-daily-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/heated-rivalry-can-single-handedly-save-the-entertainment-industry-the-daily-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019\u00a0can\u00a0single-handedly\u00a0save\u00a0the\u00a0entertainment\u00a0industry\u00a0 | The Daily Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ever since COVID and the rise of streaming services, the entertainment industry has been in a slump.\u00a0Streaming services\u00a0have\u00a0changed how\u00a0we consume\u00a0media and\u00a0have\u00a0rattled the revenue chain. Trying to adapt to this new form of\u00a0consumption while balancing financial demands\u00a0has\u00a0swept aside\u00a0creative endeavors, leading to a stretch of cash grab movies. Theaters and straight-to-streaming\u00a0movies were overtaken by remakes, live-action adaptations and sequels featuring only A-list actors. Despite poor reviews, producers\u00a0have\u00a0remained\u00a0too scared to take a gamble on anything new for fear of losing money.\u00a0In this time of industry peril where movies and television are losing\u00a0steam,\u00a0in\u00a0comes\u00a0the smash\u00a0success\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d\u00a0which\u00a0put aside the cash\u00a0grabs and gained what all the big names had been trying\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and failing\u00a0\u2013 to\u00a0do.\u00a0With a few\u00a0Canadian tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0and a dream, director Jacob Tierney\u2019s queer\u00a0hockey\u00a0romance\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0stumbled into the most talked-about show on the block. However, to call\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u2019s\u201d\u00a0success sheer luck\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0be true. Its success is the culmination of everything consumers have been looking for in entertainment in the last five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A still from \u201cHeated Rivalry.\u201d The show has already been confirmed for a second season. Photo courtesy @heatedrivalrycrave\/Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

While some may just chalk up the success of\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0to the story alone,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0not the case.\u00a0Every small decision in the casting, production and release combined to create the perfect environment to shape a cultural phenomenon not seen since the\u00a0days of cable television.\u00a0A big aspect that kept this show consistently in the public eye was its weekly releases.\u00a0Outside of the\u00a0two-episode premiere, the six episodes released one-by-one on a weekly basis, straying from the\u00a0presently favored format of streaming television in which seasons\u00a0are\u00a0released all at once\u00a0or in multi-episode chunks.\u00a0By\u00a0returning to\u00a0the practice of weekly episodes,\u00a0the release of a new episode became an event akin to holidays, bringing friends together\u00a0for\u00a0watch parties\u00a0and\u00a0fostering communities in a time where social isolation has been prevalent. On top of the\u00a0social\u00a0aspect,\u00a0viewers\u00a0spent\u00a0the entire week between episodes discussing what happened and what they believed was going to happen next, garnering more interest and traction than if all episodes dropped at once.\u00a0Even a month after the season finale,\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0is still flooding social media with updates on the actors, new\u00a0discoveries from the episodes and what will come next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0aspect that resonated with\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0was the presence of new actors on the scene.\u00a0While most media nowadays have star-studded casts teeming with household names,\u00a0not\u00a0a single star\u00a0of the new show\u00a0was\u00a0a familiar face. The most recognizable name\u00a0from the cast\u00a0is\u00a0the\u00a0actress\u00a0for Rose Landry,\u00a0Sophie\u00a0N\u00e9lisse.\u00a0She appears\u00a0as Teen Shauna in\u00a0\u201cYellowjackets,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0Showtime\u00a0thriller drama\u00a0with a cult following\u00a0and critical acclaim but not necessarily huge traction.\u00a0Besides this, the stars of the show\u00a0are completely new names to the Hollywood scene,\u00a0with Hudson Williams portraying Canadian hockey player Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie portraying his Russian rival Ilya Rozanov.\u00a0Fans of the show have\u00a0agreed\u00a0that these two are perfect for these roles and\u00a0lauded them\u00a0for their acting, something that might not have\u00a0happened\u00a0if they\u00a0cast\u00a0the two biggest names without concerning chemistry or truth to the character. It has also\u00a0enabled\u00a0Williams and Storrie\u00a0to\u00a0shoot to\u00a0stardom, allowing new actors to break into an increasingly more exclusive field.\u00a0Adding new, talented faces increased the traction to\u00a0\u201cHeated\u00a0Rivalry\u201d\u00a0as\u00a0people\u00a0wanted to\u00a0see\u00a0new faces\u00a0that\u00a0they\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0see elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Illustration by Seth Wallen\/The Daily Campus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the show has already made leaps and bounds in fixing some of the problems of\u00a0the current entertainment industry,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0making choices going forward that add to its potential success. One of the\u00a0main issues\u00a0in media is currently the time it takes between seasons of shows. One of the most prevalent examples is\u00a0the\u00a0Netflix series\u00a0\u201cStranger Things,\u201d\u00a0which took\u00a0three\u00a0years between the final two seasons, leading to the eventual fall off\u00a0and not as much interest in the ending. With\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u2019s\u201d\u00a0unexpectedly fast\u00a0renewal\u00a0for\u00a0a second season, Tierney plans to\u00a0write the scripts, shoot and\u00a0have the\u00a0highly\u00a0anticipated\u00a0season out within\u00a018 months\u00a0of its announcement.\u00a0This quick turnaround makes use of the interest garnered without losing energy while proving the years between seasons is unnecessary and harmful.\u00a0The series\u00a0also\u00a0plans to have merch proceeds\u00a0go directly to the actors when their likeness is used, an action foreign to film and television. Hopefully, this will help to support actors financially\u00a0and create an\u00a0environment\u00a0actors want to work in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In summary,\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0highlights what consumers want in media: something new.\u00a0New faces, new stories,\u00a0new content.\u00a0People are tired of the same actors telling the same stories over and over again.\u00a0We want something we\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0seen before with the right actors for the\u00a0role,\u00a0not just names we know.\u00a0People love\u00a0\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d\u00a0not just because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a queer romance with some spicy\u00a0scenes, but because\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0feeding\u00a0us these stories\u00a0exactly\u00a0how\u00a0we\u00a0want to\u00a0consume them. If other big names take a page from their book, I believe the entertainment industry can find its feet again to continue making\u00a0truly riveting content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source dailycampus.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since COVID and the rise of streaming services, the entertainment industry has been in a slump.\u00a0Streaming services\u00a0have\u00a0changed how\u00a0we consume\u00a0media and\u00a0have\u00a0rattled the revenue chain. Trying to adapt to this new form of\u00a0consumption while balancing financial demands\u00a0has\u00a0swept aside\u00a0creative endeavors, leading to a stretch of cash grab movies. Theaters and straight-to-streaming\u00a0movies were overtaken by remakes, live-action adaptations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2257813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2257812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\u2018Heated-Rivalry-can-single-handedly-save-the-entertainment-industry-The-Daily-Campus.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2257812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2257814,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2257812\/revisions\/2257814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2257813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2257812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2257812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2257812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}