Hey, Sam Sanders here.

Thank you so much for checking out my show.

We are talking heated rivalry this episode.

The sexy gay hockey show.

But trust me, we're not discussing this show in the way you might think.

So I saw a piece in Vanity Fair last week, made the claim that heated rivalry is a big

secret hit in Russia.

Even though Russia is staunchly anti-queer, even though any queer representation in the media

is illegal there, even though the show itself isn't allowed to run officially in Russia,

a lot of Russians have just chosen to pirate it.

And is that what you want to be together?

So much.

So much it scares me.

And on Russian's version of Rotten Tomatoes,

heated rivalry now has a higher score than Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

Mikhail Ziegert wrote that story for Vanity Fair, and he's got some things in common with the character Ilya from heated rivalry.

Mikhail, like Ilya, is Russian and gay. In the show, Ilya's character can't return to Russia if he comes out.

Mikhail has had a similar experience in real life.

Mikhail Ziegert was one of the first big public figures in modern Russian history

to enter a same-sex marriage. That marriage became headline news for Russian propaganda channels. Russian television

called Mikhail and his husband Satanists. Mekiel lives in New York now, and he can't go back

to Russia. But Russian propaganda, they still sometimes talk about him and share his image.

...