A "Shore" Thing: Raises for Almost Everyone

The cast of Jersey Shore.

Image: MTV

That standoff didn't last long. After staging a strike to demand bigger paychecks, most of the cast of MTV's popular (and somewhat painful) Jersey Shore got pretty much what they wanted. Filming of new scenes in Seaside Heights, the New Jersey beach town that the world now equates with wild antics and nonstop hookups, can go forward.

495 Productions, the company based in Burbank, California, that also produces such reality fare as Tool Academy and HGTV Design Star, agreed to boost the salaries for all but one of the cast members. That one, Angelina Pivarnick, won't be part of the third season.

According to several reports, four of the cast—Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio and Jenni "JWOWW" Farley—will get $30,000 an episode for the next go-round. During the first season, which ended up being a breakout hit for MTV and the production company, the then-nobodies earned $5,000 an episode. For season two, which begins July 29 and was filmed in Miami Beach, they got $10,000 an episode.

Three other cast members—Vinny GuaDagnino, Sammi Giancola, and Ronni Ortiz-Magro—reportedly will be getting smaller raises.

Earlier this week, I suggested that 495 Productions should make an example and fire them. After all, there have to be lots of potential replacements. But with ad revenues for Season 2 projected to be $4.8 million—up $1.2 million for the first season—a healthy bump in pay for a known commodity clearly seemed the better payoff.