On a chilly January morning in New York, the plaza outside NBC’s Studio 1A was buzzing with anticipation. Fans—some having traveled from as far as Tennessee—pressed against the barricades, clutching homemade signs and sporting merch emblazoned with the faces of Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. Inside, the mood was just as electric. Connor Storrie, breakout star of the hit series Heated Rivalry, was about to make his live morning show debut on TODAY, and the excitement was palpable.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for Storrie and Williams, whose on-screen chemistry as rival hockey players-turned-lovers Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander has captivated audiences and critics alike. Heated Rivalry, based on Rachel Reid’s beloved queer romance novels, premiered on the Canadian streamer Crave in late November 2025, before HBO Max snapped up the U.S. rights in a move that only amplified the show’s meteoric rise. By the time the six-episode season wrapped on December 26, 2025, it had become one of HBO Max’s most-watched shows, drawing praise from celebrities like Helen Hunt and Pedro Pascal and igniting a social media frenzy. According to Decider, the buzz hasn’t slowed down since.
Storrie’s appearance on TODAY on January 14, 2026, was the latest stop in a dizzying press tour that’s seen both leads leap from relative obscurity to the center of Hollywood’s spotlight. Just days earlier, the pair had presented together at the 83rd annual Golden Globes in Los Angeles, charming the crowd with their playful banter and drawing attention for their bold red carpet fashion—Storrie in a Saint Laurent tuxedo with Tiffany jewelry, Williams in a white dinner jacket by Armani. Celebrity hairstylist Candice Burns told GQ that Storrie’s look was inspired by none other than Kurt Cobain’s mugshot, a detail that delighted fans and fashion watchers alike.
But there was little time to bask in the afterglow of Hollywood’s biggest night. Storrie hopped a red-eye flight to New York, arriving just in time to appear live on Late Night With Seth Meyers on January 12. Meyers kicked off their conversation by thanking Storrie for his dedication. “I left at probably 8 p.m. and then went to the Chateau Marmont for about 30 minutes,” Storrie recalled. “Said hello to Parker Posey and then got on a plane.” The pace, he admitted, was relentless. “We’ve been going, going, going since the show got picked up by HBO and started releasing wider and wider. I haven’t had time to sit back and take it in,” Storrie confessed on TODAY. “This sort of thing, you can’t be super objective with it. I’m still kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. My Truman moment where everyone says, ‘We got you!’”
Storrie’s rise has been anything but conventional. Raised in Odessa, Texas—a town immortalized by Friday Night Lights—he worked as a server in Los Angeles while auditioning for roles. The day he landed Heated Rivalry, he nearly lost his restaurant job after a disastrous shift. “I got sat down,” he recalled with a laugh. “I messed up a table so bad. I got a horrible review.” But his parents, both former bodybuilders turned mortgage industry workers, were unwavering in their support. “When I said I wanted to be in movies, they were like, ‘Yeah, go do it!’” he told GQ. “I wanted to be an actor as long as I can remember. My mom says that it’s one of the first coherent sentences I said.”
On TODAY, Storrie fielded questions with good humor, even taking over the studio kitchen to whip up the now-iconic tuna melt—a nod to a pivotal scene in Heated Rivalry where Ilya makes the dish for Shane, signaling a turning point in their relationship. “That is cute, but I’m gonna show you guys how it’s really done,” he joked, pulling out pickles and ginger ale (Shane’s favorite beverage in the series). The crowd lapped it up, and TODAY co-anchor Craig Melvin thanked him for the culinary tips, posting, “Thanks for stopping by Studio 1A, and for the delicious tuna melt tips!”
Storrie’s dedication to the role of Ilya Rozanov has become the stuff of legend. To convincingly portray the Russian hockey star, he took four hour-long Russian lessons every day for a month and a half, learning 25 pages of dialogue and perfecting his accent. The effort paid off: during filming, a Russian background actor mistook him for a native speaker and began chatting with him in Russian. Storrie’s go-to response? “I speak Russian really poorly,” he said, laughing. On TODAY, he slipped effortlessly into Ilya’s accent, reciting fan-favorite lines like, “I’m coming to the cottage.”
Yet, for all the glitz and glamour, Storrie remains grounded. He spoke candidly about the show’s impact and why he thinks it’s resonated so deeply. “If you look at the arc of the show, there’s definitely some spicy stuff, which grabs people at first. But underneath all of it, these characters really like each other. They love each other,” he told Craig Melvin. “You can resonate with that no matter who you are or who that’s between.” The show’s reach, he said, has been “totally unexpected.” Gesturing at the diverse crowd on the plaza, he added, “You see there’s all walks of life and all types of people.”
Fans eager for more were thrilled by Storrie’s exclusive tease on TODAY: Season 2 of Heated Rivalry is in the works, with showrunner Jacob Tierney still writing scripts and filming likely to begin in summer 2026. In the meantime, viewers can dive into Rachel Reid’s novels, with a third book, Unrivaled, set for release in September. Storrie also revealed that he recently pitched himself to a director at the Golden Globes, proving he’s not afraid to chase new opportunities. “I was like, ‘Hi, I love you. I want to be in your movie,’” he recounted. “Very quickly, he started talking about anything else. Which I don’t think is a bad sign. I think maybe he was just kind of like trying to connect on a human level.”
The chemistry between Storrie and Williams—first tested in a screen test orchestrated by Tierney—has become a hallmark of the show and their off-screen friendship. Storrie shared that Williams is saved in his phone as “Huddy (Shane),” a nod to their characters and the bond they’ve forged. Their friendship has been on full display during the press tour, with fans and journalists alike noting the “whiff of Beatlemania” that now follows their every move.
With awards season in full swing and Men’s Fashion Week in Milan on the horizon, Storrie and Williams show no signs of slowing down. If Storrie’s recent appearances at Chanel dinners and his sartorial choices—styled by James Yardley and including everything from neon chartreuse carcoats to Tom Ford ensembles—are any indication, his star is only set to rise. For now, though, he’s savoring the moment, even if it still feels a bit surreal. “I don’t think you really can take it in,” he admitted. And with the world watching, who can blame him?
