by Joe Siegel

The hit drama “Heated Rivalry,” featuring two male hockey players in a romantic relationship, has become a surprise hit, inspiring much discussion about openly gay athletes and the way they are covered in the media.

“Heated Rivalry” received critical acclaim, with praise for the directing, writing, and the performances by lead actors Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.

It also achieved high audience viewership, becoming Canadian streamer Crave’s most-watched original series to date and HBO Max’s top debut for an acquired, non-animated title since the platform’s launch in 2019.

Phillip Zonkel, editor of Los Angeles-based Q Voice News, said that while his outlet has covered the show’s cultural impact, “I don’t know if the popularity of the show will lead to more coverage of sports by LGBTQ+ media in the same way that legacy and mainstream news outlets cover sports, as its own beat with coverage of all games, rankings, playoffs. It takes a lot of time and resources.”

Zonkel did note that “Outsports does a good job of covering sports through a queer lens.”

“LGBTQ+ media might increase coverage of players who come out of the closet, but that might be more personality coverage, feature coverage, instead of nuanced sports coverage,” said Zonkel. “As for sports in our local community, we try to keep an eye on queer athletes and provide coverage when we can. We’ve covered a high school trans athlete, AB Hernandez, who was at the center of a firestorm when the president criticized her participation in high school sports and when anti-LGBTQ+ activists attended her track games and harassed her. One of our media partners covered those incidents and we republished the articles.”

The show is so popular that Dallas Voice used its stars as the cover image of its love and sex-themed Valentine’s Day issue with the headline “Hot and bothered.” The newspaper also pointed out that star Connor Storrie is a Texas native.

Tammye Nash, managing director of Dallas Voice, hadn’t seen “Heated Rivalry” yet, although she has heard about the show and the attention it is receiving.

“That being said, I hope that it will, indeed, lead to more coverage of LGBTQ sports and LGBTQ people in sports,” Nash said. “But it seems to me that the attention for this [show] is about the romance/sex scenes between the two stars and less about the actual sport of hockey. Again, I have not watched it, but that is the impression I have gotten.”

Nash said LGBTQ sports coverage has always been featured in the Dallas Voice.

“We have a very active sports community here in DFW with a number of local groups, from bowling to tennis to golf to softball to rugby to volleyball and more. Dallas has hosted the Gay Softball World Series three times, I think. Twice for sure. For a long time we had a gay men’s softball league and a lesbian softball league. Both men and women now compete in the Pegasus Slowpitch Softball Association.”

Dallas is also home to Lost Souls Rugby, the gay rugby team that has twice won the Hoagland Cup at the Mark Bingham Cup tournament, said Nash. “On the pro sports scene, we have the Dallas Cowboys here, who for a time were the team of (openly gay former NFL player) Michael Sam. The Dallas Mavericks routinely hold one or more Pride Night events during their season. We cover the WNBA Dallas Wings regularly. We have a new women’s pro soccer team we hope to be able to cover more in the future. And of course, Dallas Voice is the newspaper to which (Olympic figure skater) Amber Glenn first came out as bisexual.”

In Las Vegas, “Historically, we’ve covered the Las Vegas Aces because of LGBTQ+ player visibility, and we also included their president in our DEI series,” said Russ White, publisher of QLife. “We also covered Sin City Classic each year.”

“We’ve mentioned local Pride Night events as they come up, but those tend to lean nonprofit/community-focused—and none of the local teams have chosen to advertise with us, which often affects how deep we can go,” said White. “Hopefully we’ll see more athletes come out and feel safe doing so, because we’d absolutely welcome more reasons to cover those stories locally.”

Looking at the show’s mainstream media coverage, Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff wrote a January 23, 2026, editorial entitled, “Media obsess over ‘Heated Rivalry’ sex but ignore problem of homophobia in sports.”

“[T]he big issue ignored by the media that the show tackles is the crippling effect of homophobia and the closet — not just on professional athletes but on anyone who isn’t comfortable being out at work,” wrote Naff. “And it’s a growing problem given the hostile Trump administration. Attacks on LGBTQ people and the roll back of DEI and related protections are driving many Americans back into the closet, especially in D.C.’s large federal workforce. And the mainstream media seem totally unaware that there has never been an openly gay NHL player. Hell, there’s never even been a retired NHL player who came out.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 28
Issue 1