MTV may move ‘Jersey Shore’ to Florida for show’s second season
Here’s the situation.
The “Jersey Shore” could be moving to the Florida coast.
Talk has it that JWoww, The Situation and the rest of the cast of MTV’s hit show could be taping their second season under the golden rays of the Sunshine State.
MTV representatives have not stated officially where the show will tape, though reports have swirled for more than a month about different sites for the second season, with the South Beach sands of Miami as an oft-mentioned new locale.
News of the show’s potential move south inspired mixed feelings from people in the Seaside Heights area, where season one was taped during the summer.
“I’m a little disappointed because I did want to see them come around,” said Lavallette resident Caitlin Decker, 22, who works at Hemingway’s Cafe on the Boulevard. “I think it’s a safety issue because now everyone knows who they are and where they live.”
“Jersey Shore” was an instant hit, despite criticism for its depiction of Jersey Shore summer visitors as loud, obnoxious and sometimes promiscuous. But season one was so successful that cast members reportedly negotiated to receive $10,000 each per episode for season two.
“New Jersey’s not really like that at all. The show reminds me of Staten Island,” said Heather Maguire of Sparta, who came to Seaside Heights on Wednesday with her boyfriend, Matt Nardone, and friends. “Now everyone automatically thinks everyone from New Jersey is like that.”
Nardone said he thought the depiction of 20-something New Jersey residents was unrealistic.
“I felt like a lot of it was fabricated, I’ve never actually met anyone like that,” he said.
However, some borough business owners and officials saw the upside to the show.
“A lot of people want to look at the negative. But the beaches look spectacular, the boardwalk looks spectacular, the fireworks look spectacular. The pluses far outweigh the negatives,” said John Saaddy, owner of the popular nightclubs Karma and Bamboo, where the cast spent many hours during the show’s taping.
Saaddy said the town hasn’t seen the last of MTV casts and crews.
He said a new cast of eight people will come back to Seaside Heights this summer, though he could not reveal any details.
“The people out there are intelligent enough to understand that if you put those same eight kids anywhere, they would act the same anywhere. The ignorance of people thinking that’s just what happens at the Jersey Shore is absurd,” Saaddy said on whether Snooki, DJ Pauly D and the other cast members tarnished the Shore’s image.
He also said business has boomed from the national exposure, including a tenfold increase of Sweet Sixteen parties and Web site hits.
MTV officials are not saying whether the show will be back on the Shore. An MTV representative did not return calls about the show’s possible move.
Sees the positives
John Camera, borough administrator, said the show went through many transitions, including a quiet taping period, the hype and outrage against the depiction of Italian-Americans and violence against women, and finally, the shocking success of the show.
“Nobody expected this show to be so mainstream,” said Camera. “It really did a full cycle. It’s not the piece we’d want to use to promote our town, but it still got our town seen across the country. It had many more positives than negatives.”
He compared the idea that people would not visit Seaside due to the content of the show to not visiting Washington, D.C., after watching an episode of “The Real World.”
“It was one segment on a type of person they tried to portray, and it was a reality TV show, where everyone is overacting for TV,” Camera said.
Decker, the waitress at Hemingway’s, said the club’s managers did not allow the show to tape inside the restaurant, thinking the cameras would be too invasive.
“I think the show made New Jersey look a little dumb, but it might make business a little busier,” she said. “I’ve never seen anyone when I go out that wears anything like JWoww or Snooki.”
On the boardwalk near the infamous beach house at 1209 Ocean Terrace, complete with an Italian flag painted on the garage door, Rich Keller was out strolling Wednesday, enjoying a seasonable March day.
“I watched some of “Jersey Shore,’ ” said Keller, 46, of Toms River. “It was nice to see a lot of local places.”
But he had not heard the talk that the show was moving to a different location.
“It attracts people here, and I don’t think it made us look bad,” Keller said. “If they came back here, it would be OK.”
http://www.app.com/print/article/20100311/NEWS/3110377/MTV-may-move-Jersey-Shore-to-Florida-for-show-s-second-season
