Total time warp! The Jersey Shore: Family Vacation cast revisited their first appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and had a hard time seeing what they looked like when their reality TV journey first began.
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Jenni “JWoww” Farley and Deena Nicole Cortese chatted with guest hosts Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg on Friday, February 7, about how much they’ve changed over the last decade. When Polizzi, 32, joked that the group “probably looked like a mess” during their very first interview on the daytime talk show in 2010, the 78-year-old lifestyle guru and 48-year-old rapper had the photos to prove it to them.
A picture of the cast from their interview 10 years ago popped up on the screen behind them, and the MTV reality stars were horrified.
“It’s a nightmare,” Polizzi said after seeing her iconic “Snooki poof” hairstyle again.
“We hadn’t showered that whole season,” Farley, 33, said playfully, reflecting on the wild partying habits that made them all household names.
Cortese, 33, who joined the Jersey Shore cast in the show’s third season, couldn’t believe that her loved ones let her leave the house in such a state.
“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Why didn’t my friends tell me I looked like a clown?'” she laughed, reliving the “crazy” makeup she applied back then.
Despite their shock at their looks, the cast all agreed that they couldn’t be more proud of how far they’ve come and of what the show allowed them to accomplish over the years. Cortese admitted fondly that the experience made them “who we are today.”
After six seasons of bolstering their party animal personas on Jersey Shore, the cast returned in April 2018 for Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, the last three seasons of which have shown the crew taking over Miami Beach and Las Vegas before returning to their Atlantic City, New Jersey, roots.
The reboot gave the MTV stars a chance to relive their past, but Polizzi had a hard time giving up her current role as a mother of three to film the series. She confirmed in December 2019 that she would not be returning for a fourth season on the reality show.
“There was a lot of decisions that went into that,” she explained on to Stewart and Snoop Dogg. “But I basically had to just think about my kids and where I’m at in my life right now.”
