«"Heated Rivalry" remains the most-watched series in North America: The Crave original series triumphed at the Canadian Film Awards, winning a record-breaking 16 awards this weekend.
The romance about Jacob Tierney's gay relationship with a hockey player won in every category it was nominated for during the two-day ceremony, including Best Drama Series, Directing, Writing, Best Lead Actor (Hudson Williams) and Best Supporting Actress (Sophie Nélisse).
However, this milestone further highlights the circumstances surrounding the series' impact on awards season, as the HBO Max drama is ineligible for an Emmy Award due to a technicality, as it was not originally a co-production with the USA Network. Nevertheless, the popular series has already been renewed for a second season.
At the 2026 CSA Awards, "Heated Rivalry" also won awards for Best Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Art Direction/Set Decoration, Costumes, Visual Effects, Casting, Original Score, Original Song "It's You," and Best Guest Performance (Nadine Bhabha). The series also won the Cogeco Audience Award, and Nélisse was honored with the Radius Award.
While co-stars François Arnaud and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova were nominated for their roles, Connor Storrie was once again left out of the nominations because he is an American actor.
«"If I could split this award in half, I would. Because if those amorous, hungry little eyes didn't have a big, sexy Russian to feast their eyes on, my performance wouldn't have been as good," Williams concluded his acceptance speech. "So I'm sharing this award with honorary Canadian Connor Storrie.".
"Heated Rivalry" is available to stream on HBO Max and Crave.
The article 'Bitter Rivalry' Wins 16 Awards at Canadian Film Awards first appeared on TheWrap.