March 14, 2023
An iconic New Jersey reality star has announced her surprising return to the franchise she exited over 10 years ago.
Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola, one of the original cast members of MTV's "Jersey Shore," will appear in the current season of the "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" spinoff.
The Monmouth County native's return to TV was teased on social media, with a post by the official "Jersey Shore" Instagram account.
"She's still the sweetest b**** you'll ever meet," the account wrote, in reference to Giancola's tagline in the opening credit sequence of the original show.
Giancola also shared the big news with her own Instagram followers, posting a behind-the-scenes selfie with the caption, "Okay I can finally say… I’m backkk!"
During her time away from the reality TV spotlight, Giancola has kept busy, launching her women's clothing and accessories store, Sweetheart Coast, in 2013. While originally an online shop, Giancola opened a physical location on the Ocean City boardwalk in 2021.
"I've been coming to Ocean City, New Jersey since I was a little kid and I thought there couldn't have been a better place for me to open up a store than here," Giancola said at the time. "I just love this town so so much."
Giancola was one of the original cast members of the MTV's "Jersey Shore," which ran from 2009 to 2012. The reality show brought young singles to Seaside Heights, Ocean County, for the summer, where they lived together, worked on the boardwalk, partied, fought, hooked up and used a lot of hair gel.
A centerpiece of the show was Giancola's on-again, off-again relationship with fellow cast member Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, which spawned several viral moments and memes that still make the rounds on social media today, such as "Stahp Rahn!" and the "anonymous" note warning Giancola of her boyfriend's cheating ways.
Along with Giancola and Ortiz-Magro, the show's cast included Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Vinny Guadagnino, Angelina Pivarnick and Deena Nicole Cortese.
A spinoff, "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" launched in 2018, detailing the stars' ongoing friendship through marriages, children and troubles with the law.
Currently in its sixth season, the show welcomed back all of the original cast mates, besides Giancola. At the time the show was announced, Giancola said she had moved on with her life and hoped to avoid potentially toxic situations.
Giancola — who was formerly engaged to Rowan University alum Christian Biscardi and is now in a relationship with Rutgers University alum Justin May — likely won't be running into her "Jersey Shore" ex Ortiz-Magro onscreen anytime soon.
While Ortiz-Magro did star in the first few seasons of the spinoff, he made headlines for several domestic violence incidents outside the show, including arrests in 2019 and 2021. Weeks after the latter arrest, he announced he would be stepping back from the franchise to focus on addressing mental health issues.
It has not been revealed whether Giancola is back for a full-time role, but she will appear in the current sixth season of the reboot.
"Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on MTV.
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