Heated Rivalry Can’t Save the Emmys

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Welcome back to Gold Rush. We’re checking in during the first week of the offseason for The Pitt, which recently finished its run. While it had a bit of a slow beginning, the medical drama really hit its stride towards the end and received mostly positive reviews. Online, fans have been very vocal – some feel the show hasn’t treated its female characters of color fairly, while others seem to be struggling with their connection to the character of Doctor Robby. (It’s possible both of those things are happening!) Either way, The Pitt is generating buzz again, and it still looks like the frontrunner for several Emmy awards.

Despite a quieter season for the film The Pitt, the recent Oscars were dominated by the blockbuster Sinners, which broke records for nominations. The awards also saw a rivalry between Michael B. Jordan and Timothée Chalamet as leading young actors, and Paul Thomas Anderson finally won his first Oscars for One Battle After Another. Even with the film industry facing many challenges, the Oscars highlighted a competition between two very popular and critically acclaimed movies. It felt like the public’s focus had returned to the big screen after years of discussion about the rise of television.

Last winter, despite the dominance of Sinners and One Battle After Another, one scripted show clearly resonated with a wide audience: the Canadian sports romance Heated Rivalry. Ideally, awards season would focus on recognizing Heated Rivalry as more than just a steamy show popular with a specific fanbase. Beneath the passionate performances and thoughtful coming-out story lies a genuinely great TV show, deserving of awards alongside dramas about medicine, politics, and technology. However, that conversation isn’t happening, simply because of arbitrary rules.

The show Heated Rivalry can’t be nominated for a Primetime Emmy because it wasn’t made in the U.S. The rules say that foreign shows only qualify if they were created through a partnership with a U.S. company, with both financial and creative contributions, before filming began. You might be thinking of shows like Shōgun, Squid Game, Adolescence, or Downton Abbey, but all of those had some level of backing from American production companies from the start. Heated Rivalry, however, was made by the Canadian network Crave. While it also became available on HBO Max, HBO simply bought the rights to stream it – they weren’t involved in its creation. This agreement happened just nine days before the show premiered, and all the funding and creative work came from Crave.

According to Jacob Tierney, the executive producer of Heated Rivalry, the show benefited from being made without American involvement. He told The Ankler that a U.S.-based production would have likely delayed intimate moments, like a kiss, and broadened the focus to include many more characters and storylines, ultimately losing the show’s core identity. He specifically mentioned they wouldn’t have shown sex in the first episode or kept the cast limited to focus on the central relationship.

As a critic, I’ve been watching the buzz around Heated Rivalry, and it’s undeniable – this show is a major moment for Canadian television. But it’s also making me wonder if the Emmys will actually play fair. The show’s popularity is so huge, it feels like the Academy might just have to bend the rules to let it compete. And honestly, they’ve shown they’re willing to do just that. Look at the last two decades – they’ve constantly tweaked things. They’ve added nominations in the big drama and comedy categories, merged and unmerged miniseries categories (now it’s Limited or Anthology!), and even fiddled with the rules for guest actors and reality TV. They’ve created entirely new awards for reality show hosts, editors, and cinematographers. So why not make an exception for Heated Rivalry? Everyone involved, from the show’s creators to the Emmy executives, should be on board with finding a way to get our hockey drama into the competition.

According to TV Academy president Maury McIntyre, there was no consideration given to changing the rules to allow the show Heated Rivalry to compete in the Primetime Emmys. He confirmed this week that neither the Academy nor anyone else was asked to make an exception. McIntyre explained that eligibility is determined by the governing body of the show’s origin. The TV Academy handles the Primetime Emmys, while its sister organization, NATAS, covers Daytime, Sports, News, and Documentary Emmys. The International Academy handles international productions. Because Heated Rivalry was entirely produced in Canada, it falls under the International Academy’s jurisdiction, not the Primetime Emmys. HBO simply distributed the show.

For Heated Rivalry to qualify as an American co-production for the Primetime Emmys, HBO – or another U.S. company – needed to be involved from the beginning, providing both funding and creative direction. According to McIntyre, if HBO had been a producer, contributing financially and having input on decisions like hiring writers and actors, it would have been eligible. However, they simply acquired the show after it was already completed.

Sometimes, an American distributor will take on a foreign TV show and invest enough in it – financially and creatively – to qualify it for the Primetime Emmys. A good example is Disney’s involvement with Doctor Who, but Schitt’s Creek is a more relevant case. While it ultimately won many Emmys for comedy, the show wasn’t eligible at first. According to McIntyre, Schitt’s Creek wasn’t considered for the Emmys in its first year because it was entirely made in Canada. However, when Pop TV in the US began distributing the show, they also took on responsibility for funding and creative decisions for all future seasons, which then made it eligible starting with season two.

HBO’s plans for season two of Heated Rivalry remain the same, meaning its chances of winning Emmys next year are unlikely to improve. However, if HBO—or another US network—decides to become a major financial partner for future seasons, the show could then become eligible for Primetime Emmys.

With the cancellation of Heated Rivalry, The Pitt is now benefiting from the attention. Few shows generate as much excitement as Heated Rivalry did. While several political thrillers – The Diplomat, Slow Horses, and Paradise – are competing for Emmy nominations, they don’t quite reach the same level of hype. The critically acclaimed series Pluribus hasn’t yet captured a broad audience like its sci-fi counterpart, Severance. The biggest challenge to The Pitt winning another award might be HBO’s Euphoria, which is generating a lot of buzz thanks to its star-studded cast. However, it remains to be seen if Euphoria has the serious weight to truly compete, and that’s what everyone will be watching for this season.

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2026-04-26 15:55