First Jersey Shore Family Vacation ratings strong, but far from series’ heyday

For anyone out there curious to see if the Jersey Shore Family Vacation ratings could come even close to topping what they were back when the series was a little more of a pop-culture phenomenon, there is a pretty simple answer to that: They’re not. As a matter of fact, they’re not even close.

Yet, there is still a silver lining for the likes of The Situation, Snooki, Pauly D, and the rest of the cast. The first two episodes from Thursday night brought in on average 2.5 million viewers. That’s very good for an unscripted cable series in this current climate. While the series at its peak got close to almost 9 million viewers for a single episode, that was back when there wasn’t as much competition from streaming services and with that, less for viewers to watch. At that time a series like Jersey Shore had not been done in the same way; it wasn’t necessarily a pioneer for the genre (we will tip our hat to Real World for that), but its presentation and personality were different from most other shows out there. This was a cast that came together in an incredibly entertaining way and each person brought something to the show that we couldn’t stop watching – no one was a wrong casting for this show… not even Angelina even though she ditched us twice.

For MTV, the best news is that when it comes to their key 18-34 demographic, Jersey Shore Family Vacation is the best individual series launch that they’ve had over the past six years. That means that there’s a thirst for this particular world and this show that is not necessarily out there for some others. That is inevitably the sort of thing that they are going to keep very much in mind when considering other projects.

Earlier this year MTV tried to replicate the success of Jersey Shore with Floribama Shore, and it did perform well enough to earn a second season. Yet, we do think with this particular brand of show is diminishing. For the first season you are able to watch with this sense of great wonder since these are all people who are being exposed to the reality TV machine for the first time. On the other side of that they start to become self-aware or, in some cases, a little bit obvious in the “TV moments” that they are trying to create. That makes the entire process of watching and enjoying a little bit different since there’s not that feeling of seeing someone become famous without them ever knowing it. You can never quite replicate that original experience ever again, which is why the first season of Jersey Shore really holds up today so much better than some of the seasons that followed.

Our personal opinion is this: We anticipate that the ratings for Jersey Shore Family Vacation are going to decline a little bit as the show progresses along. This is just something that really tends to happen to any revival once the demand for nostalgia starts to fade a little bit. That being said there’s already a second season in the works.

What do you think of the Jersey Shore Family Vacation ratings? Did you watch it, or are you planning to watch again? Be sure to share below!

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