The Prime Minister’s Heated Rivalry moment wasn’t just fun. It was gold in our current attention economy — a rare case of politics showing up where people actually are.

By now, you’d have to be on some type of retreat, in a medically-induced coma, or willfully blind to have missed the cultural phenomenon that is Heated Rivalry. The Canadian-made TV series has dominated both the streamers and social media since its November release. In a few numbers: within its first three weeks, Crave viewership increased by increased by 400 per cent.

Heated Rivalry is the driver of first-time viewers to HBO Max. One third of audience members have rewatched an episode, while 15 per cent have watched an episode five times or more. And across YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram, and Facebook, there have been more than dedicated videos uploaded between Nov. 15 and Jan. 12, averaging 80,000 views each.

The show’s a big deal, especially for its largely young, female, and LGBTQ audience — groups that politics usually struggle to reach.

Far from the politically extreme generation we commonly see portrayed, a lot of young people are just flat-out disengaged. In a Relay Strategies online poll of 2,376 18-34........

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