What are the key takeaways from this Pivot episode?

Key insights include: **Canadian Production Model:** Heated Rivalry secured funding through a hybrid structure: twenty to thirty percent from broadcaster Crave as license fees, twenty to thirty percent from provincial and federal tax credits, twenty percent from Bell Media's distribution arm SphereAbacus, and the final ten percent from producers reinvesting their own fees to retain full intellectual property ownership for future revenue streams.; **Efficient Block Shooting:** The production shot all six episodes in thirty-six days with ten-hour maximum workdays instead of the typical twelve to fifteen hour days. All scripts were completed before production began, allowing the team to block shoot episodes like one continuous film rather than writing during production, which significantly reduced overtime costs and crew exhaustion while maintaining quality.; **Anti-Fascist Directing Philosophy:** Tierney limits takes to capture spontaneous actor performances rather than pursuing perfectionist control through twenty-five repetitions. He prioritizes ensemble collaboration over directorial authority, allowing actors like Hudson to make unexpected choices that prove superior in editing. This approach values surprise and talent contribution over rigid pre-planned execution, creating authentic moments impossible through micromanagement.

What did Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady discuss on Pivot?

Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady explain how they produced Heated Rivalry for under three million Canadian dollars per episode using Canadian funding structures that let producers retain intellectual property rights. They discuss their anti-fascist production philosophy, thirty-six day shoot schedule, ten-hour workdays, and why American distributors initially rejected their queer hockey romance series. Key topics include: **Canadian Production Model:** Heated Rivalry secured funding through a hybrid structure: twenty to thirty percent from broadcaster Crave as license fees, twenty to thirty percent from provincial and federal tax credits, twenty percent from Bell Media's distribution arm SphereAbacus, and the final ten percent from producers reinvesting their own fees to retain full intellectual property ownership for future revenue streams.; **Efficient Block Shooting:** The production shot all six episodes in thirty-six days with ten-hour maximum workdays instead of the typical twelve to fifteen hour days. All scripts were completed before production began, allowing the team to block shoot episodes like one continuous film rather than writing during production, which significantly reduced overtime costs and crew exhaustion while maintaining quality..

How long is this episode of Pivot?

This episode is 42 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Pivot

How did Heated Rivalry’s Producers Make Their Massive Hit?

February 7, 2026

42 min episode · 2 min read

Jacob Tierney,Brendan Brady

Episode

42 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Investing, Leadership, Sales & Revenue

AI-Generated Summary

Published Feb 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Canadian Production Model: Heated Rivalry secured funding through a hybrid structure: twenty to thirty percent from broadcaster Crave as license fees, twenty to thirty percent from provincial and federal tax credits, twenty percent from Bell Media's distribution arm SphereAbacus, and the final ten percent from producers reinvesting their own fees to retain full intellectual property ownership for future revenue streams.
✓Efficient Block Shooting: The production shot all six episodes in thirty-six days with ten-hour maximum workdays instead of the typical twelve to fifteen hour days. All scripts were completed before production began, allowing the team to block shoot episodes like one continuous film rather than writing during production, which significantly reduced overtime costs and crew exhaustion while maintaining quality.
✓Anti-Fascist Directing Philosophy: Tierney limits takes to capture spontaneous actor performances rather than pursuing perfectionist control through twenty-five repetitions. He prioritizes ensemble collaboration over directorial authority, allowing actors like Hudson to make unexpected choices that prove superior in editing. This approach values surprise and talent contribution over rigid pre-planned execution, creating authentic moments impossible through micromanagement.
✓Romance Genre Economics: Romance novels carry the fiction publishing industry despite widespread dismissal due to misogyny. The genre has massive built-in audiences of primarily female readers whose consumption patterns and desires are ignored by traditional media gatekeepers. Tierney notes that if Heated Rivalry featured a boy with a gun instead of queer romance, it would have been optioned a decade earlier.
✓Intellectual Property Retention Strategy: Canadian producers who use domestic funding structures own underlying IP rights for twenty-five years, unlike US studio deals where creators make more upfront but lose long-term ownership. This enabled Tierney and Brady to launch a robust merchandise business during post-production and benefit from all future revenue streams including licensing, distribution, and product sales.

What It Covers

Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady explain how they produced Heated Rivalry for under three million Canadian dollars per episode using Canadian funding structures that let producers retain intellectual property rights. They discuss their anti-fascist production philosophy, thirty-six day shoot schedule, ten-hour workdays, and why American distributors initially rejected their queer hockey romance series.

Key Questions Answered

•Canadian Production Model: Heated Rivalry secured funding through a hybrid structure: twenty to thirty percent from broadcaster Crave as license fees, twenty to thirty percent from provincial and federal tax credits, twenty percent from Bell Media's distribution arm SphereAbacus, and the final ten percent from producers reinvesting their own fees to retain full intellectual property ownership for future revenue streams.
•Efficient Block Shooting: The production shot all six episodes in thirty-six days with ten-hour maximum workdays instead of the typical twelve to fifteen hour days. All scripts were completed before production began, allowing the team to block shoot episodes like one continuous film rather than writing during production, which significantly reduced overtime costs and crew exhaustion while maintaining quality.
•Anti-Fascist Directing Philosophy: Tierney limits takes to capture spontaneous actor performances rather than pursuing perfectionist control through twenty-five repetitions. He prioritizes ensemble collaboration over directorial authority, allowing actors like Hudson to make unexpected choices that prove superior in editing. This approach values surprise and talent contribution over rigid pre-planned execution, creating authentic moments impossible through micromanagement.
•Romance Genre Economics: Romance novels carry the fiction publishing industry despite widespread dismissal due to misogyny. The genre has massive built-in audiences of primarily female readers whose consumption patterns and desires are ignored by traditional media gatekeepers. Tierney notes that if Heated Rivalry featured a boy with a gun instead of queer romance, it would have been optioned a decade earlier.
•Intellectual Property Retention Strategy: Canadian producers who use domestic funding structures own underlying IP rights for twenty-five years, unlike US studio deals where creators make more upfront but lose long-term ownership. This enabled Tierney and Brady to launch a robust merchandise business during post-production and benefit from all future revenue streams including licensing, distribution, and product sales.

Notable Moment

Multiple distributors rejected Heated Rivalry with notes demanding a female protagonist as an entry point for women viewers, completely missing that women already write, read, and obsess over these male-male romance novels while gay men remain largely unaware of the genre. This fundamental misunderstanding of the existing audience nearly prevented the show from being made.

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Episode Transcript

Why have the ICE operations in Minneapolis struck a nerve unlike anything else in the Trump era? It's really important to understand that this is a radical administration. It is not a conservative administration. I'm Preet Bharara. In this week, Pulitzer Prize winning historian and Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum joins me to unpack what's happening in Minneapolis and why she argues this moment reflects a radical governing project, not traditional conservatism. The episode is out now. Search and follow Stay Tuned with Preet wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. Today, we've got a special bonus episode, and it's not about anything terrifying or depressing. It's about the most addictive, delightful, surprise cultural phenomena of the decade, heated rivalry. I'm joined today by the show's creator, Jacob Tierney, and executive producer, Brendan Brady. Welcome, you two. You guys are good already. I already Thanks, Kara. We've been beset by some tech issues, but nonetheless, the gays will prevail. The success of the show is about so many things, queer joy, sex, inclusion. It's amazing business story, and that's really what I wanted to talk about. But first for the fans, are we getting a standalone episode before season two? I love saying now this is Brendan. So, I would say that, like, much like the best parts of this show, just enjoy the urine. Enjoy the urine. Is that on your T shirts? I could. Oh, no soon. Trademark. Trademark. We trademarked it. Yeah. Okay. Because that means no. That's a no. That's We'll see here. This is Jacob speaking now. That's a here's the here's the truth and that nobody actually wants to hear is that we we just don't know yet. We are you know, we we actually only finished this show basically a week before episode six aired. And so this has been a massive, surprise and endow and endeavor, and we didn't really have a moment to catch our breaths before answering questions like this. So the truth is we're getting a plan in place. We will have more information for folks soon. We understand that there's an appetite for a lot of this. We're just trying to figure out what we can act physically accomplish in in the next year. In the next year. So one thing, this show has been a giant PR boost in the entire your entire country. Here's prime minister Mark Carney at a recent media event. You had to speaking of feel the yearn, but go ahead. The world knows that Shane and Ilya are rising hockey stars who fall for each other as they face off in one of the greatest rivalries the game has ever known. But there are also two young men who are terrified of being their fullest self. And we live in an increasingly dangerous, divided, and intolerant world. A fundamental Canadian value is that people should be …

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