‘Jersey Shore’: Snooki & JWoww on Emotional ‘Family Vacation’ Season 8 Finale and What’s Next

Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi and Jenni “JWoww” Farley love a good reason to celebrate. And the two best friends have every reason to do just that with Jersey Shore, the MTV reality tentpole that put them on the map, reaching more than 200 episodes. Season 8 of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation also chronicled a number of milestones from Snooki’s store opening and virtually meeting her birth mom to JWOWW releasing her first movie Devon.

After an emotional season that saw the roomies venture to Jamaica, it all leads back to Seaside Heights. The finale sees the cast under one roof for the first time in the revival’s history to mark the franchise’s 15-year anniversary. Owner Danny Merk transforms the Shore Store for a nostalgic awards show and soiree. This was the venue where the crew worked over those early summers. 

Here Polizzi and Farley open up about the wild ride of becoming reality TV royalty and what’s to come. 

MTV

It’s pretty incredible to think there have now been more seasons of the revival of Jersey Shore than the original. What do you think is the secret sauce? 

Jenni “JWoww” Farley: For me, when I look at our show in comparison to others, it might not be as impactful as it once was in the original because we were crazy in our 20s. I think that’s also why we’re successful to this day because the audience grew with us. So, we’re no longer at the bars till 4 a.m. getting into fistfights and passing out with fried cheeseballs in our mouths. We are parenting, had divorces, new babies, and marriages. Everything I think our audience can relate to, and we just stayed relatable. 

Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi: Agreed. I feel like our fans have been growing up with us. They love to see that side of us as parents. At the same time, I do feel when we do our OG trips, we still turn out. Jenni is on the dance floor. I’m falling with my wine in my hand. We still have our moments where it’s the OG crazy us, but I do think like Jenni said that the fans love watching us evolve with them. I feel we are also true to ourselves and show our real lives, so thank you the fans basically for still loving us. 

The show has also been a great proponent for mental health and normalizing therapy. Each of you have been through so much and made it to the other side. How is it being able to show this to an audience? 

Jenni: For me, in our 20s the overwhelmingness of trying to find yourself is really hard to navigate. Now I’m 40 I’m able to reflect and understand, especially when it comes to mental health, that it’s okay to speak on it. It’s okay to not be embarrassed over it. Just like with Nicole and her adoption story. If we’re able to tell our story, whether it’s good ,bad, or indifferent, it helps one of our fans and they can relate to it because they are going through the same thing. That is exactly what Jersey Shore is for me. Nicole’s story is one of the most beautiful stories I ever got to see in real-time and then to watch it later in the episodes. Our struggles can be one of the most beautiful things about the show. 

Ronnie [Ortiz-Magro] has been through his struggles and been an advocate for this sort of thing. He even does speaking engagements. How is it seeing him inch his way back into the mix alongside [his ex’ Sammi [Giancola]? 

Nicole: I feel like when they were first in the same room together it was the worst feeling. Me and Jenni wanted to run. The tension in the room was so awkward. I feel like I’m an empath and felt horrible. They realize they both moved on and don’t want it to be awkward. They don’t want it to be awkward for them or us. I mean Sam just had a baby. She is getting married. Ron is doing his own thing. It has been a lot of years. I think now we really don’t think about it, but when we did go back into the house and Sam brought up “The Note,” we thought about the memories we had together. I’m just happy it’s not awkward anymore. 

Jenni: A hundred percent. You said it perfectly. I’m glad the awkwardness is over. 

Sammi Sweetheart/Instagram

You mentioned Sam having a baby. We saw her fertility struggles leading up to this during the season. How do you feel about her dream coming true and her becoming a mom? 

Nicole: We haven’t seen her yet, but we are super excited. She literally had the baby. When you just have a baby, you don’t want to have people around. You want to give it some time for mom to bond with the baby. We know Sam is going to be an incredible mom. Sam is so loving. She is going to kill it. I’m so happy for her and Justin. 

The roommates went to Jamaica this season as Nikki [Hall] introduces Pauly D [DelVecchio] to where she is from. Were you surprised there wasn’t a proposal? 

Jenni: Yes and no. I feel like they are so private that I would not be surprised. If he does do it, and he does it privately, I think from a cast perspective, I respect them either way. Whether it’s on the show or in private. However they chose to have that moment, that should be their choice. I just want us to be the first they tell. That’s all. 

Nicole: We did our engagements private.

Jenni: Sometimes we’re just not filming. Let’s pretend he wants to do it in July and we’re not filming in July. It either works or it doesn’t. And it’s completely okay if it’s not on camera. I personally want to see it though, but respect him if he doesn’t want to do it on camera. 

Nicole: Same! 

When it comes Angelina [Pivarnick], you’ve had a lot of patience with her because you know what she has been enduring. Losing a pet, I had some tears watching those scenes. Those episodes were difficult to watch. What are your thoughts on how she has tried to improve herself and learn from the past? How is she doing today? 

Jenni: I was speaking about her the other day to someone. I told them no matter where we are in our relationship, love or hate, anywhere in between, I’ll always have empathy for her and always be rooting for her. With her life, she hasn’t been dealt the greatest cards. She is always dealing with something, and it’s really sad. She’ll always have us as cheerleaders no matter what. Personally, I want to see her get better. She deserves better at this point. My heart broke when Peanut passed because that was her rock and her stability. It was so heartbreaking to see. 

Nicole: We knew it was coming, so we knew we had to be there for her. Give her time. Losing a pet is no joke, but I feel she is doing great right now. We just saw her at the MTV VMAs. 

Jenni: She looked beautiful. 

Nicole: We’re going to see her next week. She is in a good headspace right now. That’s all we can ask for. 

What do you want to tease about the season finale coming up? There is this awards ceremony. Everyone is dressed to the nines. 

Nicole: I don’t think we expected it to be what it was. We expected it to be just a fun party. We had the limo and all got ready at Jenni’s. We all looked so stunning. We were dressed like we’re going to the Emmys, but we thought it would be this silly funny party. Then we walk in and see the huge red carpet and we’re doing our handprints on the sidewalk and walk in to this actual award show. It was really cute. 

Jenni: It’s so nice to be surprised because it’s very hard to surprise us at this point. Production loses their minds trying to surprise us because we are always asking questions. They want to get that natural reaction because we’re not good actors. That was the best part of this. We had no idea what we were going into. Just watching us and seeing our family and how supported and loved we are. We forget that 15 plus years later we’re still kind of cool. These types of moments, it’s just nice to have. 

Nicole: Even though they were silly awards and not the Emmys, it was nice to feel recognized and go down memory lane and realize all we’ve been through. We’ve been through a lot over 15 years, so it was nice. It was cozy. 

We also have the two-part reunion coming up. What can you tell us about what went down? 

Jenni: The reunion was actually spicy. I was not expecting it. Grab my pearls. It’s a good one. I would say out of the last few years, this is a really good reunion. 

Nicolle: Yeah. I felt like everyone was open and honest. We really dug through the stuff. I feel like Justina [Valentine] doesn’t want us to argue, so she bypasses all the hard questions. But not this time. It’s a little spicy. 

MTV

Now that Mike [Sorrentino] has his passport back and we’re going international, is there a place you want to go next? 

Nicole: I purposely didn’t renew my passport because I didn’t want to go overseas or to another country because I have anxiety issues leaving my kids. It was fine. I’ll do it again. 

Jenni: I want to go to Chile, selfishly. Not that I want her to meet her biological mom per say, but because I heard Chile has an international wine celebration. I’m trying to go for bottles of wine. Let’s just go and figure it out when we get there. 

Jenni, it’s amazing you made this horror movie Devon. What can you say about making your second film Nanny Cam and having Katie Cassidy be a part of it? 

Jenni: We’re actually done almost editing it right now. I keep reverting back to that you can write anything as good as it can be and it’s only as good as your actors take on the art. What I have to say is Katie Cassidy and everyone did this so well. I can’t even give flowers when flowers are due because it’s way better than I ever expected. For me, going through the editing process right now, I want to make sure it’s 10 times better than they ever imagined. Putting yourself in a vulnerable position with postpartum psychosis,  a mother dealing with mental illness, and the demons she is seeing in her life. Whether they are real or not, they are real to her. It’s a very delicate subject I want to bring to life. I want to give all the mothers their flowers when it comes to dealing with mental illness while trying to raise children. This project of itself is something I’m excited for people to see. It’s going to be a beautiful piece. 

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Nicole: When do I get to see it? 

Jenni: Last night when I was finishing the editing, I reached a point where I felt I could show Nicole. I didn’t want to show her it until we got to a place where, even though there were no sound effects or SFX or coloring, it was good enough for Nicole to watch. Nicole is always by my side in the editing process like Devon and helping me and giving me pointers. Now I’m so stoked to show you this version. 

Nicole: I’m not smart like her to make movies, but I appreciate horror. It’s my favorite genre. It’s like, “what do you want to watch tonight?” I’m like, “I don’t know, someone killing each other or something with zombies.” I’m excited. 

Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, Thursdays, 8/7c, MTV