What happens in seaside heights, stays in seaside heights…
Jersey Shore
Jersey Shore is an American reality television series that premiered on MTV on December 3, 2009 in the United States. The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the Jersey Shore in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Season 2 followed the cast escaping the cold northeast winter to Miami Beach, with Season 3 returning to the Jersey Shore. The fourth season, filmed in Italy, premiered on August 4, 2011.[1][2][3] MTV confirmed in June 2011 that Season 5 will return to Seaside Heights. The show debuted amid large amounts of controversy regarding the use of the words “Guido/Guidette,” portrayals of Italian-American stereotypes, and scrutiny from locals because the cast members were not residents of the area.[4][5][6]
Dubbed a cultural phenomenon,[7] the series has garnered record ratings for MTV, making it the network’s most viewed series telecast ever.[8] The series’ cast has also been credited with introducing unique lexicon and phrases into American popular culture. The University of Chicago and the University of Oklahoma are among the educational institutions that have had classes or conferences about the show.[9][10][11] In 2010, the cast of Jersey Shore was named on Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People list,[10] and the series has since been exported to dozens of countries worldwide.[12] The show returned for a fifth season, at Seaside Heights on January 5, 2012.[1]
Production history
VH1 producer Anthony Beltempo proposed the idea of a show focusing on the “guido” lifestyle for TV, in the form of a competition series. Executive producer SallyAnn Salsano, who previously worked on A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, devised a new concept, inspired by her summers in a Jersey summer share house. MTV Networks President Van Toffler felt that the series “loud, young, bold” style was better suited to MTV’s sensibilities than VH1, and MTV programming executive Tony DiSanto felt that “[After The Hills], it was time to go for a more authentic approach, like a documentary.” Van Toffler described the casting process by saying they looked for “candor, honesty, boldness and a very combustible, chaotic mess. You could honestly say none of these people were traditionally beautiful.”[13]
The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer in a summer share in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Season 1 followed cast members Angelina Pivarnick, Jennifer Farley, Michael Sorrentino, Nicole Polizzi, Paul DelVecchio, Ronald Ortiz-Magro, Samantha Giancola, and Vincenzo Guadagnino at the Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore premiered on December 3, 2009, with back-to-back episodes, averaging 1.375 million viewers.[14] Although the initial ratings were considered unimpressive to Salsano, they slowly grew in popularity, and was the subject of parody on Saturday Night Live after the third week, a turnaround that MTV executive Tony DiSanto calls “the fastest 0 to 60 I’ve ever seen on a show.”[13] Season 1 posted strong growth every week and ranked #1 in its time period versus all cable competition among P12–34 (people 12 to 34 years old) during the first quarter of 2010, with a season high 2.6 rating for the finale.[15] The season 1 finale audience, 4.8 million, was more than triple that of the premiere, an increase of more than 3.4 million, and was MTV’s highest rated original series telecast in almost two years.[15] Overall, the season 1 averaged 2.7 million viewers.[16]
In an article in Rolling Stone, it was mentioned that the house had 35 remote-controlled cameras in fixed locations, 12 hand-held ones, one IMX camera and six DV cameras.[17] Nicole Polizzi said that:
They have cameras everywhere, all the time… You’re always being watched. You kind of get a little paranoid, because you’re like, ‘Who’s watching me?’… It’s trippy. it messes with your head. But that’s why we go crazy. That’s why we fight with each other. That’s why we drink. We’re living in a house for two months with that shit. We can’t have cellphones, TV, radio or internet… There’s no normalcy. It’s like a prison, with cameras. The only time we’re not on camera is when we’re in the shower, and that’s why we all take three-hour showers, just to get away from it all.[17]
After Season 1, the cast negotiated pay raises, though both they and DiSanto explained that it was not contentious, and was given undue weight by the press. Rather than wait until the next New Jersey summer for Season 2, the production moved to Miami.[13]
In January 2010 MTV announced that a second season consisting of 12 episodes had been ordered and would air that summer.[18][19][20] It would follow all of the first season cast as they avoided the cold northeast winter[18][19] by relocating to the South Beach, Florida. In May 2010 the cast relocated back to the Jersey Shore for the rest of filming, but it was later determined that the production company had enough footage from the Miami shoot to fill the entire second season,[21] and that the footage to be shot at the Jersey Shore would be used for a third season.[22] The second season premiered on July 29, 2010,[22] averaging 5.252 million viewers.[23] Season 2 was the #1 television series in the P12-34 demographic for the summer of 2010 across all TV and has also posted continued growth every week.[24]
On July 20, 2010, MTV announced that the cast, would return for a third season,[12][25][26] with the exception of Pivarnick.[27] Season 3 returned to the original Jersey Shore summer setting,[12][25] and replaced Angelina with Deena Nicole Cortese, a longtime friend of Polizzi.[28] The season’s January 6, 2011 premiere was viewed by a record 8.45 million viewers, making it MTV’s most viewed series telecast ever.[8][29] The second episode of the season once again set a series and MTV high, with 8.56 million viewers,[30] only to set another record with the airing of the fourth episode, which garnered 8.87 million viewers.[31]
On January 25, 2011, it was confirmed that the show had been renewed for a fourth season, to be filmed in Italy during the first half of 2011.[2][3] The fourth season premiered August 4, 2011.[3] MTV confirmed in June 2011 that the fifth season will return to Seaside Heights.[32]
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