Ratings: ‘Jersey Shore’ series finale rises … but also falls?

After some woeful ratings drops throughout the past year, “Jersey Shore” can at least go out with its head held high … sort of. For the series finale on Thursday night, the MTV reality sensation managed to rise up to a 1.8 rating, which is the show’s highest rating in several weeks and an increase in 50% from the new episode that aired the week before. This is the good news; the bad? This is still the lowest-rated finale the show has ever had, and yet it is also one of the most expensive given how much it has cost to pay some of the cast members for this final go-around on TV.

Anyone who watches the show likely knows why the ratings have fallen so hard since its season 3 peak, and it is simply because it has drifted away from what its original focus was about: eight people having a good time, embarrassing themselves royally, and at least having some sort of perception that they were ordinary people. The show was never able to reconcile the fact that these “ordinary young people” were also big stars, and they would try to create this sort of illusion that no one was following them from place to place on the boardwalk.

Also, the final season really reflected that these people were all at a more mature place in their lives, and really would have never crashed in a Shore House together in the real world anymore. Snooki, for example, was seven months pregnant, whereas The Situation was still battling addiction problems following a trip to rehab.

What do you think about the show’s final ratings? If you want to see Snooki, The Situation, and others react to the end of the show, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: MTV