After previously insisting she would not be part of MTV’s “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” reboot, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola is returning to the juggernaut franchise after a decade away.
With two not-so-subtle hints, MTV’s “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” and Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola have confirmed that she’s back, baby!
While Sammi was part of the original incarnation of “Jersey Shore” on MTV from 2009 to 2012, she opted out of appearing in the sequel series which launched in 2018. At the time, she took to Instagram to say she was enjoying her life free of the cameras and wanted “to avoid potentially toxic situations.”
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Now, though, it looks like all of that is changing. The show’s official Instagram account made their own version of the announcement with a shot of Sammi on camera in front of a green screen, captioning it, “She’s still the sweetest b—- you’ll ever meet.”
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If that wasn’t clear enough, they added a camera emoji to suggest she’s filming, and then tagged her and dropped the hashtag for the show itself. Then, both the show and Sammi herself shared some video of her smiling into the camera before Sammi made the official announcement Sunday morning.
“Okay I can finally say…I’m backkk! ☺️ @jerseyshore #jsfamilyvacation,” she captioned a picture of herself in front of the green screen. Costar Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was on brand with his comment: “We have a Situation.”
Most of the rest of the cast shared variations of these same images and videos to their various Instagram pages to help spread the news that the new season of “Family Vacation” will be just a little bit sweeter, with Jenni “JWOWW” Farley even sharing some throwback snaps of the OG cast to her Stories.
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Sammi was the only member of the original cast who’d yet to be part of the new series, though the cast never gave up hope on convincing her to join the party.
In September 2022, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi told E! News, “We tried to get her back like two years ago, all of us texting her saying, ‘Come for one dinner. Why not? And she’s just always like, ‘No, I’ll never do that show again.’ We didn’t want to push it.”
Now, less than a year later, Sammi is ready for a “Vacation.” One major change that could have influenced her decision is the fact that for the first time, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is not part of the cast. He and Sammi have a rocky relationship past. Ronnie stepped away to seek treatment for mental health issues.
Though it’s unclear when Sammi might first appear on camera — or if at all this season — new episodes of “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” are currently airing every Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
