MTV Renews Jersey Shore: Family Vacation After Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi's Exit

On last week's season finale, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi quit the show after drama at Angelina Pivarnick's wedding

Published on June 25, 2020 12:17 PM

Jersey Shore: Family Vacation is coming back — without Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi.

MTV announced Thursday that it had renewed the reality show for a fourth season. Last week's season finale, which documented Polizzi's decision to leave the show, marked the highest-rated episode in almost two years, according to the network.

The episode chronicled Angelina Pivarnick's wedding to Chris Larangeira last November. Drama between Pivarnick and her female costars erupted after Polizzi, Jenni "JWoww" Farley and Deena Cortese's off-color bridesmaid speech prompted boos from the other guests, and at the end of the night, Polizzi declared that she was "done" with the show.

While they insisted they meant no harm by their speech, Pivarnick was furious. And the tensions don't appear to have subsided; the stars continued arguing on Twitter as the episode aired.

Snooki and Angelina — Slaven Vlasic/Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Polizzi addressed the renewal in a reply to costar Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino's tweet about the news.

"Good luck my fam," she wrote. "Can't wait to watch."

Jersey Shore originally premiered in 2009 and was rebooted as Family Vacation in 2018 with the original cast, minus Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola.

Polizzi first announced that she was retiring from the beloved show last December. Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this year, she opened up about the decision, noting that her TV career isn't over yet.

"I needed to move on," she said. "It's just not for me anymore. Drama has never been my thing. Especially now, I don't want to leave my kids and not see them for days on end to do that. I want to leave and have a good time with my friends and roomies, and then come home and be a mom. So this season was very stressful, and I just wasn't having fun. I want to do something that's more uplifting in my life."

"I'm definitely not done with TV," she added. "I'm just done with that show."

Polizzi — who shares daughter Giovanna, 5, and sons Lorenzo, 7, and Angelo, 1, with husband Jionni LaValle — said her costars initially tried to stop her but eventually "accepted" her decision.

"When they first realized I was serious about quitting, they all hit me up one by one trying to change my mind," she said. "But I was like, 'No, I can't, I just can't do it anymore.' They understand now."

She said she still talks to them "every single day" via group chat, and predicted that the show will continue on without her.

"When Sam left, we were still going strong. So even though I'm leaving, there are still a lot of pieces to that family and every single one of us plays a huge role," she said. "Just because I'm leaving doesn't mean the show is going to end."