"Book agents have been dusting off their sports romances and kind of tiptoeing into the marketplace with them. I just got sent a male-male tennis romance that's Heated Rivalry meets Challengers. If the wrong lesson is that the queer tennis show gets made, then I don't want to be right."
"The wrong lesson to take from this show's success would be to have Heated Rivalry in baseball or Heated Rivalry in football. It can't be replicated. That would be the exact wrong message to take."
"Heated Rivalry was something fresh that people hadn't seen before. Nothing in The Data suggested it would turn into a phenomenon, yet it became an unexpected hit with audiences."
Heated Rivalry, a Canadian hockey romance that debuted on HBO Max three months ago, has become an unexpected phenomenon with 11.5 million U.S. viewers. The show's success has prompted publishers and studios to pitch similar sports romance projects, including a male-male tennis romance. However, HBO and HBO Max content chief Casey Bloys cautions against attempting to replicate the show's formula across different sports or genres. He emphasizes that the show's appeal lies in its originality and freshness, warning that creating multiple sports romance series would be a strategic mistake. Bloys compares this to the failed sitcom clones that emerged after Friends' success, arguing that the wrong lesson would be assuming the formula is easily transferable.
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