This gay softball sitcom from the ‘Heated Rivalry’ streamer could succeed where knockoffs have failed

When Heated Rivalry premiered last fall, it became an unprecedented international smash success. The hit series—often referred to as simply “the gay hockey show”—exceeded all expectations. Produced by Canadian streaming service Crave, Heated Rivalry was made on an extremely low budget by prestige-TV standards, running its producers less than $3.6 million per episode. It almost stayed north of the border, with HBO Max acquiring the U.S. distribution rights to the series just nine days before it premiered. Heated Rivalry became the most-watched scripted title the streamer had ever acquired from another platform, garnering an average of 10.6 million viewers per episode in the U.S. Its two leading men, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, went from little-known actors to bona fide superstars overnight. Since then, a number of projects have seemingly attempted to tap into Heated Rivalry-mania with stories set on the ice, like Amazon Prime Video’s Off Campus. But few strike as many of the same notes as the upcoming softball comedy Slo Pitch. The series, also produced by Crave, follows a team of queer underdogs in the world of beer league softball. Go Beer or Go Home🍻 Created by Gwenlyn …