'Jersey Shore' Revived at MTV With Original Cast
Original cast members Pauly D, JWoww, Vinny, Ronnie, Snooki and The Situation will return for 'Jersey Shore Family Vacation."
Five years after MTV's Jersey Shore closed up shop, the breakout reality hit is returning to the Viacom-owned cable network.
MTV on Monday announced that it is reviving the show with a new take, Jersey Shore Family Vacation, featuring several of the franchise's original personalities.
Announced Monday during the series premiere of Floribama Shore, Jersey Shore Family Vacation will feature Deena Nicole Cortese (who appeared in seasons three-six), Paul “Pauly D” Delvecchio (seasons one-six), Jenni “JWoww” Farley (seasons one-six), Vinny Guadagnino (seasons one-six), Ronnie Ortiz-Magro (seasons one-six), Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi (seasons one-six) and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino (seasons one-six).
Jersey Shore Family Vacation hails from creator SallyAnn Salsano — who also exec produces Floribama Shore — and her 495 Productions banner. MTV head of unscripted Nina L. Diaz and Jackie French oversee for the cable network. An episode count for the series has not yet been determined. It will premiere in 2018, with a formal date to be announced later.
Jersey Shore ran for six seasons on MTV and ranked as one of the cable network's highest-rated series of all time. The unscripted show about a group of party-obsessed friends in the Garden State was MTV's most successful series of all time and peaked in 2011 when it averaged 9 million viewers per episode. The series had several spinoffs, including Snooki & JWoww and The Show With Vinny, and served as an international cash cow with several local versions.
The Jersey Shore revival comes as MTV president Chris McCarthy has put a focus on bringing the younger-skewing cable network back to its roots with more upbeat programming as it courts the hard-to-reach millennial viewer. McCarthy recently revived Total Request Live (which launched to poor returns) as part of his plan to focus programming on what he called "everything it is to be young," including universal moments from The Hills, Jersey Shore and Laguna Beach.
More recently, the Jersey Shore cast reunited for an E! docuseries called Reunion Road Trip, which is in development at the NBCUniversal-owned cable network. That MTV would revive Jersey Shore comes as little surprise given the challenges associated with breaking through the cluttered landscape of more than 700 unscripted series and the overall difficulty the unscripted space has had in launching a new hit. The Jersey Shore revival also arrives as ABC is reviving American Idol, less than a year after it went off the air at Fox.
