Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Giancola Returns to ‘Jersey Shore’ After an 11-Year Hiatus; Causes Social Media Frenzy

Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola caused a social media frenzy when MTV announced on Thursday that she would be appearing on the next episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation . After an 11-year absence, the reality star, now 36, returned to her Poconos weekend home, much to the delight of her housemates. As everyone settled up for the night, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, 41, made the comment, “Yo, my Twitter is lit right now, man.” After MTV tweeted about Sammi’s comeback, he read the post out loud: “And Gym Tan Sam’s back.”

The housemates were also seen on their phones, looking at various posts on their social media regarding Giancola’s comeback. More than 11 million people liked the post announcing Sammi’s comeback, according to the counter. Pauly said , “Oh, damn. People are like, ‘Wait, what?’, this is gonna go viral.” He then joked, “Wait, Sam, do you know Sam’s back?”. Sammi then posed with Mike, Pauly, and Vinny Guadagnino, 35, for a shot.

While catching up, Pauly revealed to Sammi that he had been seeing Nikki Hall, age 31, for three years. Sammi asked Pauly, “If you’ve been with Nikki for three years, do you see yourself, like, doing all that stuff, like, getting married or having kids or any of that?.” To this, Pauly replied, “I don’t know. It does seem like so much pressure, we’re just enjoying the moment, and going through that. And whatever happens happens I feel. I hate, like the labels and all that. It’s, like, weird.”

Sammi’s revelation over dinner that her new boyfriend Justin May used to bounce and bartend at the Karma Club was all it took for Vinny and Sammi to get their friendship back on track. Sammi said that Justin had confided in her that he had once carried Deena Cortese, then 36, out of a bar on his back. Moreover, in the season six episode titled Just Like Old Times , Angelina Pivarnick, 37, apologized to Deena after confronting her aggressively during the tense reunion.

Angelina confided in Deena that their response to her unexpected engagement in New Orleans had left her feeling wounded, and Deena admitted that she had been really afraid that Angelina would attack her during the reunion. They said they were sorry and were ready to go on, but Angelina still couldn’t get through to Jenni, so the two avoided one other. In an emotional rant, Jenni revealed, “I don’t want a sit-down, and I don’t want an apology. I’m trying to just move forward without drama.”

To keep his title as prank war champion, Pauly also planned an intricate UFO hoax utilizing drones. When the topic of UFOs came up, he was pleased to hear Mike say that he thinks aliens originate from the seas and/or inside the Earth. Pauly solicited the assistance of the production staff as well to aid him with this elaborate hoax. After getting the production staff to agree to assist him, Pauly told himself, “Prank war champion.”