Fans of "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" have likely noticed a key member of the original cast has been missing: Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola. Best known for her tumultuous on-again/off-again relationship with costar Ronnie Ortiz-Magro on the show's previous iteration, which aired from 2009 to 2012 on MTV, Giancola was the only one of the leads not to appear at all on the revival.
But in season six, part two of "Family Vacation," which premieres Thursday, Giancola finally returns. Her costar Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino told Insider her comeback caught him by surprise.
"I was definitely very shocked when I saw Sammi. I thought that was the last thing that we'd ever see," Sorrentino revealed in a recent interview.
Sorrentino said he and other castmates "didn't know why she didn't return" for "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation," which premiered in 2018 and follows the now-older cast as they continue to take dramatic trips together, albeit this time with spouses and children.
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"I thought that we would see Ron sooner than we saw Sam," Sorrentino told Insider, referring to Giancola's ex, Ortiz-Magro. "It just so happened that Ron was slowly starting to show his face more, and then Sam came back very quickly and surprised everyone."
Another "Jersey Shore" original cast member, Deena Buckner (née Cortese), told Insider that she was just "really excited" to have Giancola back on the show.
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"I was trying to get her back for years and eventually she told me, 'Please just stop asking. It's never gonna happen.' So I respected her and I just stopped asking," Buckner revealed.
According to the mom of two, Giancola's decision to stay off camera meant that she often didn't attend "personal events" of Buckner's since there would be cameras around filming for the show.
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"Especially if Ronnie was around — she didn't want Ronnie around, and for a while Ronnie was around," Buckner said of the dynamic between the exes. "I feel like me being on the show and her deciding not to kind of drifted us apart... she was just living her best life on her own, which I was super happy for her about."
As shown on the new season of "Jersey Shore Family Vacation," Giancola first reached out to cast member Angelina Pivarnick (with whom Buckner clashes in new season) about returning. Buckner emphasized, however, there were no hard feelings between her and Giancola.
"When I saw her walk through the door, I was just happy. There was no animosity," Buckner shared with Insider. "I was just so excited that she finally decided to come back, I didn't care how she wound up coming back."
Ortiz-Magro, for his part, appeared on the "Family Vacation" revival for the first few seasons, but later took a step back in 2021 to deal with "mental health issues." Around the same time, Ortiz-Magro was also dealing with legal issues surrounding an arrest for domestic violence. He's set to appear in at least a few episodes of the new season of "Family Vacation" in a recurring capacity.
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Sorrentino, who faced some legal troubles himself in 2018, commended Ortiz-Magro's decision to focus on his mental health away from the show, although he noted it would likely be difficult for the cast to adjust to his return. He said there were "mixed feelings" when it came to Ortiz-Magro's return.
"You're dealing with a very tricky situation, a very sensitive situation," Sorrentino said of Ortiz-Magro's and Giancola's simultaneous returns to the show. "So you got to see how we navigate that... what we did when Ron and Sam were under the same roof at the same time."
"You're dealing with some very big personalities. And we've all been on TV for many, many, many years, and Sam has been absent for a decade," Sorrentino added.
The father of two was confident that fans would be drawn in by the new season of the reality show, and teased lots of drama on the upcoming episodes.
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"There's a lot of firsts going on and I think this is one of our best seasons in many, many years — maybe ever," Sorrentino told Insider. "This is reality TV. This is unpredictable, and that's what makes this show so great."
"Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" premieres Thursday. You can watch the trailer below.
