The Television Academy really, really wants to honor hit hockey romance “Heated Rivalry.” But because it was produced solely by Canadian producers and didn’t originate on a U.S. network, the show isn’t Emmy-eligible.
It’s actually quite head-scratching: International projects these days don’t seem to have a problem getting into the Emmy race — just add an American studio or network to your list of producers, and boom, you’re eligible for a Primetime Emmy. “Downton Abbey,” “Squid Game,” “Baby Reindeer” were all shows that clearly originated overseas, but were still winners here.
“Heated Rivalry,” to its credit, has remained exclusively Canadian — without a U.S. production partner. Created by Jacob Tierney, the show is a production of Accent Aigu Entertainment for Canadian conglom Bell Media’s Crave streamer.
Of course, during the development process, there was a chance that a U.S. financier might board the show, which would have made it Emmy-eligible. But when those potential producers wanted to mess with the show’s creative, Bell and Accent Aigu decided to go it alone.
HBO didn’t acquire U.S. broadcast rights to the show just weeks before launch, which makes it complicated — as they clearly weren’t involved in the show’s Season 1 production. Maybe HBO could have still strong-armed a production credit — or at least demanded to be a partner in Season 2. But in a remarkable act of restraint, HBO’s Casey Bloys decided he didn’t want to mess with success.
