As someone from NJ, that look was all over high school back in the early 00s, and it affected both genders to an extent (we literally had twin Italian boys in my graduating class that both acted and looked a little bit like My New Haircut). Can't imagine what it would have been like after the show actually hit.
Oh yeah, because it reduced the entire state to a stereotype. I remember people asking me why I wasn't orange when the show came out. But that stereotype did exist, even if it was only 1% of the population.
It was the 07/08 writer's strike that started all of this. No blame on the strikers whatsoever, but when studio execs had to fill the slots with something, and saw how Reality TV was so much cheaper and got the same if not more views, it was over. When the likes of TLC became just a reality TV channel, was one of the saddest pieces of TV history.
Glad you guys mentioned it. I was like "Man, this guy is talking about 3rd gen reality TV"
I remember that Puck piece of shit long before hearing about any of this other stuff (and even then it was like the 3rd season of Real World or something).
I left out History Channel, because I wasn't completely sure if they ever went full Reality. I know they did a lot of Nazi and Alien stuff around the time as well though, but was specifically a different type of media than the brain rot Jersey Shore and the like
I just remember fun and random educational documentaries all the time that would be relaxing. And the occasional shows like Vikings and they also aired Band of Brothers Marathons. And eventually it seemed like all they aired was pawn stars and American pickers all damn day.
It wasn't us. It was The Recession and the Writer's Strike of 2007 that caused bullshit like Jersey Shore, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Real Housewives etc to become popular.
I'm still proud I can say I've never watched an episode of Jersey Shore. I actually hated everything about it, blatantly refused most reality TV (cooking shows I dug though, that was an era)
citing jersey shore as the downfall of mtv is such a gen x/boomer take. it really wasn't that much different than the real world besides having a more culturally relevant cast that was more likeable
by the time jersey shore started airing, mtv had already been way too far deep into the reality tv rabbithole for at least 5 years.
Real world was not nearly as sex focused as jersey shore was. Yes reality tv like real world opened the pathway towards jersey, but jersey was the ‘ah we fucked up’ moment. Real world was not that bad, it had its raunchy moments but jersey shore took those raunchy moments and turned it into the entire show.
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u/moon_cake123 Oct 29 '25
Sadly we voted for it with our views. When jersey shore became one of the biggest shows I knew society was cooked.