Remember “Jersey Shore”?
Shut up, of course you do. The MTV reality show was everything in 2009.
In case you were somehow incapacitated in 2009, we’ll run through the show’s premise really quickly. It followed eight housemates living at (shocker) the Jersey Shore in New Jersey. Much of the humor came from how they fulfilled basically every stereotype you’ve ever had about the Jersey Shore (despite the fact that actual Jersey Shore residents hated it, since the cast members weren’t actual Jersey Shore residents).
“You’re trying to create a family town, and you got a bunch of kids acting very rude, and it doesn’t create a good image,” one resident told the Associated Press.
But nevertheless, Jersey Shore was a massive hit, and it was renewed for six seasons before finally ending in 2012. MTV followed the original run with a bunch of spinoffs, and when those were successful, the network began introducing similar shows on its international channels. For example, the United Kingdom has Geordie Shore.
That’s all well and good, but what about the original cast? What have they been up to in the last five years?
As it turns out, they’ve been partying.
Well, they partied in early March of this year, anyway. A few members of the cast showed up to help Samantha “Sammi” Giancola celebrate her 30th birthday.
Although Angelina Pivarnick didn’t show, Vinny Guadagnino made an appearance. Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi was there too, as were Jenni “JWoww” Farley and Deena Cortese.
Since the show ended, Deena has gotten engaged, but she’s been mostly taking it easy. Snooki appeared on Dancing With the Stars then joined The New Celebrity Apprentice. She’s also spoken at Rutgers University (she received $32,000 for her appearance) and written three books (no word on whether she used a ghostwriter). She’s also focused on being a mother, and she maintains popular social media accounts.
Vinny started a talk show in 2013 and launched his own clothing brand, IHAV, in 2011.
He’s also a rapper. He’s not quite as successful as Pauly D, who managed to start a highly lucrative career as a DJ.
Angelina Pivarnick has released a few songs, but she’s mostly stayed quiet after leaving the show in its second season. Sammi Giancola created her own fragrance and clothing lines, which have been fairly successful, and she launched a podcast in 2015 called Just Sayin. She also guest starred on a few shows, including Project Runway and Makeover Manor.
All in all, the Jersey Shore cast is doing fairly well, although we doubt that they’ll ever get the publicity they received in the show’s heyday. They probably don’t mind—they’re basically retired before 30, and they’ve all made decent money from a few years in television.
Now all they need to do is find a comfortable place to retire; maybe some sort of a shore next to an ocean, ideally in a well-populated state where they won’t draw too much attention. We can’t really think of a place that meets that description, can you?
