Scott Gries/Picture Group/MTV“Jersey Shore,” first shown in 2009, has remained MTV’s highest-rated reality show.The fists will continue to pump and the spray-on tans will continue to be applied in Seaside Heights, N.J. But the reality-TV adventures of Snooki, JWoww, the Situation and their fellow beach-side revelers will soon be no more: MTV said on Thursday that the coming season of “Jersey Shore” will be its last.
When it made its debut on MTV in December 2009, “Jersey Shore” seemed superficially like one more entry in a familiar reality format that the network all but invented, where young people are made to live, work, party and sleep together while the videotape rolled.
But the combination of outspoken (if not entirely camera-ready) thrill-seekers like Michael Sorrentino (a k a the Situation), Nicole Polizzi (alias Snooki), Jennifer Farley (that’s JWoww to you) somehow blended together like gym, tanning and laundry: by the end of its first season, “Jersey Shore” was drawing nearly 5 million viewers an episode for new broadcasts. At its peak, the series was bringing in more than 8 million viewers an episode, making media sensations of its young cast members and providing MTV with a brash and youthful new identity.
But time passes; housemates come and go; and Ronnie and Sammi break up, renew their relationship and break up once again. The “Jersey Shore” cast traveled to Miami and to Italy, and ratings for the series began to fall back to earth. (The series remains one of MTV’s strongest performers with the young viewers it covets.) Spinoff series “The Pauly D Project” and “Snooki & JWoww” were introduced, and, in the surest sign that the cast’s seemingly perpetual youth was over, Ms. Polizzi gave birth to a son, Lorenzo, on Sunday.
MTV said that the final season of “Jersey Shore” will make its debut on Oct. 4. A series retrospective called “Gym, Tan, Look Back” will be shown on Sept. 6 prior to the MTV Video Music Awards.