Two words: Heated Rivalry.
Jacob Tierney is the queer mastermind who decided to bring Rachel Reid’s popular Game Changers book series to the screen by creating Heated Rivalry. The gay hockey romance immediately reached mainstream success, broke records on streamers Crave and HBO Max, and catapulted its leading men into superstardom.
Currently in production on its second season, Heated Rivalry won the GLAAD Award for Outstanding New Television Series, earned a Peabody Award for its profound cultural footprint, and garnered a record-breaking 16 Canadian Screen Awards. Tierney’s vision as a gay executive producer turned the series into a global pop culture phenomenon.
Heated Rivalry inspired professional athletes to come out, caused a surge in NHL ticket sales, served as the basis for an off-Broadway musical parody, and even opened the door for Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams to serve as official torchbearers during the Olympic Torch Relay in Feltre, Italy.
“I’m very proud that my show inserted some joy into what was otherwise kind of a dreary year. It seems that it made a lot of people, especially queer people, really happy, and that makes me very happy,” Tierney tells Out.
It’s safe to say that we all want to head to the cottage. @jacob.tierney
