Mike Sorrentino announced on Friday that Jersey Shore Family Vacation is kicking off a new season tonight at 8 PM ET on MTV.
Sorrentino, best known as The Situation, posted the news on Instagram Friday morning. He kept it simple: “We are BACK.” Tune in tonight at 8/7c on MTV. Short and hype-filled. Pretty on brand for a guy who’s never been shy about getting people pumped up. The original show ended thirteen years ago. The enthusiasm hasn’t gone anywhere.
Jersey Shore Family Vacation has been running since 2018. What started as a reunion special turned into one of MTV’s longest-running reality franchises. Most of the original crew is still on board. That includes Sorrentino, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Pauly D, Vinny Guadagnino, Deena Nicole Cortese, and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi. Eight years in, they’re all still showing up. Reality TV reunions usually fall apart within a season or two. This one hasn’t, and that’s not an accident.
Sorrentino’s personal arc is one of the more compelling threads in the series. He was one of the original show’s breakout stars from the 2009 debut. He pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in 2018 and served about eight months in federal prison in 2019. He came back to the show. He talked openly about his sobriety. He married his wife Lauren and started a family. The series followed his comeback in real time. His transformation over the seasons has been one of the more genuine things on the show. That’s saying something for a franchise built on fist pumps and tanning beds.
The premiere announcement didn’t include any specifics about the new season. Sorrentino’s post was brief. Viewers will just have to tune in tonight to find out what this season has in store.
That’s part of what makes the show work. Going in cold is half the experience.
The original Jersey Shore ran from 2009 to 2012 and became a genuine pop-culture institution. It launched careers and burned “GTL” into the cultural brain. Family Vacation has run for years with most of the cast intact. Keeping that energy going takes real chemistry, and this cast keeps delivering it.
Tonight’s premiere is at 8 PM ET on MTV. That’s 7 PM CT. Long-time viewers know the drill. New viewers couldn’t pick a better night to jump in.
