In the year of Heated Rivalry, LGBTQ+ characters dropped on TV by 25%

This story originally appeared on Them.

While shows like Heated Rivalry that prominently feature LGBTQ+ characters may seem to be more popular than ever, the most recent year in television continued a downward trend when it came to onscreen representation.

According to GLAAD’s annual “Where We Are on TV” report, queer and trans on-screen roles have hit their lowest point on both cable and broadcast television in over a decade.

The LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD found that the number of LGBTQ+ characters on television in the 2025-2026 season overall fell 25% year over year, down to 369 characters overall. That number is around half of what LGBTQ+ representation was on television just four years ago, when there were 637 queer and trans characters across streaming, broadcast, and cable.

However, not every letter in the LGBTQ+ acronym was hit the same. Trans characters were particularly affected by the fall in representation, with 79% of trans roles disappearing between the 2024 and 2025 television seasons, bringing 33 characters down to seven. And, of those seven roles, none are set to come back.

These losses are even worse for LGBTQ+ characters of color, including Ironheart and The Pitt. The number of Black, Latinx, AAPI, multiracial, and MENA LGBTQ+ characters are all down year over year.

Representation fell across all groups, except for nonbinary characters, which saw a 33% rise in on-screen depictions.

People who want to see LGBTQ+ characters are most likely to find them on streaming, which currently accounts for three-quarters of the total. Streaming lost the highest number of characters, with 96 LGBTQ+ roles disappearing year over year, compared to 17 on cable and seven on traditional networks.

Most concerning for GLAAD is that the 2025-2026 television year has seen the lowest number of LGBTQ+ characters on broadcast and cable in over a decade, with cable hitting a 16-year low and broadcast a 12-year low.

The non-streaming networks most likely to have LGBTQ+ characters are HBO and ABC, per the report.

Unfortunately, the 2026-2027 television year does not seem set up for success: about four in ten LGBTQ+ characters across shows such as Hacks, Boots, and Brilliant Minds are not set to return due to series either ending or being cancelled.

Also disturbing is the fact that there were zero characters living with HIV represented during the television season this year, down from nine in 2021.

Of course, television has been a battleground in the ongoing era-defining culture war and has not been exempt from the rightward cultural shift the United States has endured in recent years. While there are some signs of course correction after years of conservatives crying “go woke, go broke,” real change may not show up on our screens for some time. Just earlier this year, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley sidetracked a Congressional hearing with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos to question the executive about the streamer’s promotion of “transgender ideology.”

And while Heated Rivalry has been a legitimate cultural phenomenon, many people have pointed out that in its wake, Hollywood power players seem to think that people want more content about hockey (with straight characters) instead of letting the people fujo out.

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