No "Jersey Shore" Season 2? What Did Those 'Guidos/Guidettes' Go and Do Now?

The cast of MTV's "Jersey Shore" are working together, hanging together, and negotiating their new contracts together. Just like the cast of "Friends," who set a collective standard by bargaining as a unit with NBC, the cast of "Jersey Shore" are standing together, demanding at least $10,000 per person per episode for Season 2 -- or they all walk away. The New York Post reported Saturday that cast members of the hit MTV show, including the popular Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, "Pauly D" Delvecchio, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and Jenni "J-Woww" Farley, have agreed to bargain for increased pay for Season 2 or they will not return for a second season.

What? No Season 2 of "Jersey Shore"? Whatever would MTV replace the hit show with -- music videos?

Reportedly, the cast members of the wildly popular reality show that follows the lives of eight housemates as they live, work, and party in and around Seaside Heights, New Jersey, only receive a few hundred dollars each per episode. But as one controversy led to another, from the flap over the show being excessively laden with Italian American stereotypes to the fact that the housemates weren't even natives of the area to the "Snooki gets punched" videos, "Jersey Shore" became a bona fide television hit and pop culture phenomenon. On the season finale, the show scored 4.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen, nearly tripling their season opener audience and increasing by one fourth (1.2 million) over the previous week's numbers, which scored #1 in the 18-34 age demographic and placed the show firmly in the Top 25 Cable shows of the week (#18) ending January 17. The show's finale should put the show near the top position.

And the individual cast members are a hit as well. The Post reported that some cast members are pulling in $10,000 per personal appearance on the club circuit. The cast has been invited to Sean "P Diddy" Combs' son's 'Sweet Sixteen' party and there are rumors suggesting that Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi has been invited to the Grammys by none other than Ellen Degeneres.

But are the "Jersey Shore" gang worth $10,000 per cast member per episode? Of course they are.

More viewers translate into more advertising dollars. As "Jersey Shore" has increased its viewership from less than 1.4 million to nearly five million in nine short episodes, the price per commercial spot on the show has increased, making MTV and the show's producers more money. And like one source told the Post, cast members from MTV's "The Hills" get at least $100,000 per episode and the other hit reality show isn't scoring the ratings numbers that "Jersey Shore" is.

No "Jersey Shore" Season 2? Is that a joke? Fuhgeddaboudit!!

MTV will pay and they will go higher than $10,000 per cast member per episode to keep the ratings-winning ensemble together. They have a hit. Hits translate into millions of dollars of advertising revenue (despite the controversies costing them advertisers like Dominos Pizza, other advertisers will quickly fill the void) and various marketing opportunities. Advertising revenue and marketing opportunities translates into leverage for anyone associated with making "Jersey Shore" into the marketable commodity it is.

Don't worry, "Jersey Shore" fans. "Snooki" didn't get punched for nothing. The "guidos" and "guidettes" will return for a Season 2. MTV won't let a sure moneymaker slip away over a paltry couple grand.

But will they all still hang together and bargain collectively for a Season 3? It might be best to see what happens in Season 2 first.

"Jersey Shore Season 1" is set to be released on DVD in February.

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Sources:

NYPost.com
TVByTheNumbers.com