The Italians still hate Jersey Shore….
An Italian-American anti-discrimination organization is livid that MTV’s controversial reality smash has been renewed for a second season. MTV recently confirmed that the reality show, which followed a group of self-professed “Guidos” and “Guidettes” as they spent the summer in the Garden State resort town of Seaside Heights – would return later this year in a new location.
The National Italian American Foundation is among the groups hitting the roof over the announcement that Jersey Shore will soon be back on the tube. The organization has issued a statement expressing “continued concerns” about the program’s depictions of Italian-Americans in the media and argues that the reality soap makes it difficult for young Italians to be taken seriously in the workplace.
“This program and its characters had more in common with the adolescent residents of Animal House than with Italian Americans,” the organization wrote in a press statement issued Friday. The “outrageous behavior” on the show, says NIAF, which is “laden with promiscuity, debauchery, and violence,” is “a disgrace.”
Jersey Shore debuted on the network last December. By the time the eighth and final episode of Season One aired last month, the show was drawing nearly 5 million, making it the highest-rated show in MTV history.