Hours before the premiere of new series “Floribama Shore,” MTV revealed plans for a special announcement regarding its series “Jersey Shore.”
Many correctly guessed the nature of the announcement: the pop culture phenomenon is returning to the air.
Entitled “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” the new season will air on MTV in 2018.
The announcement aired during the aforementioned “Floribama Shore” premiere. MTV subsequently issued a press release, confirming that Deena Nicole Cortese, Paul “Pauly D” Delvecchio,” Jenni “JWOWW” Farley, Vinny Guadagnino, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will be part of the new season.
Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, who appeared in all six of the original seasons, was not mentioned in the press release.
“Jersey Shore” premiered to modest viewership on December 3, 2009 but quickly became a massive ratings draw. The cast members were all household names during the show’s run, and catchphrases/concepts like “GTL,” “shirt before the shirt,” and “cabs are here” became part of the zeitgeist.
Buzz and ratings greatly cooled for the show’s sixth season, but it remained a reasonably strong draw (by typical cable standards) through its December 2012 finale.
As a point of reference, no sixth season “Jersey Shore” episode drew fewer than 2 million viewers.
“Keeping Up With The Kardashians” has not drawn over 2 million live+same-day viewers since May 1, 2016. Recently launched MTV reality series “Siesta Key” never even reached 1 million live+same-day viewers in its inaugural season.
