It was said that she would never return to the boardwalk, but Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Giancola – who endured a very toxic relationship with co-star Ronnie Magro on the show - has been spotted filming scenes for upcoming episodes of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. The series is a revival of the original series, and has filmed six seasons so far, Sammi expected to return in the final half of season six.
In a video obtained by TMZ, Sammi can be seen with castmates Vinny, JWoww, Pauly D, Angelina, Deena, and The Situation in a restaurant in Florida, celebrating a cast members birthday (Snooki is in the show, FYI, just not this scene.) According to the gossip site, Sammi brought along a hunky date that looks suspiciously like ex Ronnie… that ought to go down well!
It will be interesting to see Sammi’s return to the show she swore she’d never appear on again, understandable given how torrid her time was during filming the first time around. ICYMI, Sammi’s tumultuous relationship with Ronnie was captured over the course of the six-season strong original series. They were together from 2009 – 2016, four years after the original show finished airing, but it was often a difficult watch for fans.
In fact, a producer from the show opened up about what it was like filming their on-again-off-again relationship, noting that their fights where much more ‘intense’ than what was aired to viewers.
In an AMA Reddit threat from 2020 but reshared on TikTok this week, when asked if Ron and Sam’s season three fight was ‘worse than we saw’, the producer replied:
‘It was horrible and far more intense than what aired. Some inside knowledge for you... when you see a fight scene that's quite choppily edited and intercut with talking head footage (also called interviews), the producers are trying to hide the breaking of the fourth wall. And during that fight, in particular, the fourth wall was broken a couple of times.
‘It's hard because you develop a working relationship with these people, but you are also with them 24/7 basically. So, it's hard to separate human emotions from staying professional. We were seeing incredible television being made before our eyes but at the detriment of two kids. It still doesn't sit right with me.’
It’s no surprise Sammi struggled with the decision to come to reality TV then, one can only hope she’s in a better place now – and is still the ‘sweetheart’ we all loved.