Rihanna's 'Diamonds' Won't Shine in 'Heated Rivalry' Season 2

Fans of Heated Rivalry have been crossing their fingers since the show's debut, hoping the TV adaptation would bring one of the source novels' most emotionally charged musical moments to life. Now they have their answer — and it stings a little. According to Just Jared, series creator Jacob Tierney has officially confirmed that Rihanna's 2012 smash "Diamonds" will not appear in Season 2, citing both budget constraints and reasons he's keeping close to the vest.

The 'Diamonds' Dream Is Off the Table

In Rachel Reid's The Long Game — the sixth installment in her Game Changers book series and the primary source material for Heated Rivalry's second season — "Diamonds" soundtracks a pivotal, swoon-worthy moment between rivals-turned-lovers Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Readers who fell hard for that scene have been vocal about wanting to hear those opening chords ring out on screen. Tierney, appearing in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, shut that down decisively.

"Season 2 will not feature that song. That's all I can say," he told ET, before adding a wry acknowledgment of reality: "I would just also add to remind the fans this show has not changed budget. I don't think I can afford all those diamonds, if you will."

It's a candid, almost refreshingly blunt admission. Securing a Rihanna track — especially one as iconic and commercially evergreen as "Diamonds" — doesn't come cheap, and indie-adjacent prestige TV rarely swims in those waters. Rihanna's cultural footprint remains enormous, and licensing her music to match it costs accordingly.

Late Spring 2027 Is the New Target Window

The song news wasn't the only update Tierney delivered this week. Speaking on CBS Mornings, the showrunner offered a refined release window for the upcoming episodes, now pointing to "late spring" 2027. Previously, spring 2027 — with April floated as a possible premiere month — had been the working expectation, but Tierney was clear that no locked-in date exists yet.

"I don't have an official date yet. I'm not hiding anything," he said. A slight nudge toward the back half of spring isn't a dramatic shift, but it does give fans a more calibrated set of expectations heading into the new year.

Season 2 will draw primarily from The Long Game while also weaving in elements from Role Model, another entry in Reid's series. The story picks up after Shane and Ilya's hard-won happiness at the close of Season 1, expanding their world to include new characters and couples — though Tierney has been deliberate about keeping the emotional core intact.

"My north star in this show, because there are a lot of books in this series, is I'm focusing on Shane and Ilya and we are tracking this relationship," he told CBS Mornings.

Music Has Always Been Central to the Show's Identity

Even without "Diamonds," music will clearly remain a storytelling pillar for Heated Rivalry. Tierney has spoken warmly about Wolf Parade's "I'll Believe in Anything" and how deeply personal his music selections tend to be — a philosophy that shaped the first season's entire sonic identity. That Wolf Parade track inspired the title of his new behind-the-scenes book, I'll Believe in Anything: The Making of Heated Rivalry Season 1, which dropped October 13.

It's worth noting that Rihanna's catalog isn't exactly gathering dust while fans mourn this particular miss. A$AP Rocky has confirmed she's been back in the studio, meaning new music from the Barbadian superstar could be on the horizon — which, if anything, only raises the price tag on her existing hits. And given how omnipresent she's been lately, from teasing new music in Beverly Hills to turning the World Cup Final into a fashion moment, her cultural stock isn't dipping anytime soon.

For Heated Rivalry devotees, the sting of losing that "Diamonds" scene may linger — but if Tierney's track record with music curation holds, he'll find another song that hits just as hard.