We are used to waiting an interminable amount of time between seasons of shows in the streaming era, but now, HBO’s Heated Rivalry may not prove to be an exception to that rule.
We now have a much clearer picture of the release date of Heated Rivalry season 2, revealed by show creator Jacob Tierney speaking to CBS Mornings. He says it’s being written now and has a shooting date of August. That information should lead us to a release date fairly easily.
- Heated Rivalry season 1 started shooting in April 2025. It only took 37 days to film the six episodes.
- Heated Rivalry season 1 was then released in late November 2025, eight months later, a decent amount of time for post-production.
- Now, if Heated Rivalry season 2 is shooting in August 2026, and is on a similar timeline, that gives us a release date of April 2027. That manages to slip under the 1.5-year mark at one year and five months. Maybe four months, depending on when in April it releases
It is a little disappointing, given that this is only a six-episode season, and you might imagine that could make it faster. The show airing in November 2025 and not shooting until August 2026, at least eight months later, seems like it could have been avoided. There is a book this is based on, the sixth book of Rachel Goldstein’s Game Changers series, so that’s already in hand. Still, Tierney confirmed that he had no scripts at this point in production, unlike previously, when he had all of them, which is part of the delay here. I think one issue is that no one realized how big a hit this would be, and how it would be wise to begin production as soon as possible.
The series is still being made by CTV, not HBO, but distributed through HBO when season 2 arrives. WB has remarked that they do not want to rush Tierney, which may be wise, but fans hoping that this would turn out to be an annualized show like what HBO is starting to do with series like The Pitt is not going to happen, despite being just six episodes long. Not every show can make that happen, which is understandable, but still, long waits are never fun.
There is plenty of time to rewatch Heated Rivalry as many times as you like before season 2, and I know many fans already have. With all the recent IMDB score fighting between Breaking Bad and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Heated Rivalry episode 5 has maintained the highest single episode score of 2025, a 9.9/10, which also makes it one of the top-scoring episodes of any show…ever, as few have ever reached that high-water mark. We’ll see if it can do it again next spring, it seems.
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