Jersey Shore and the loveable or not so loveable meatballs and GTL obsessives in its cast may be gone forever from MTV—sans reruns, of course—but that doesn’t mean the formerly music-oriented television network wants fans to stop laughing uproariously or cynically at young people living within certain cultural niches in the United States. Last night, MTV premiered Buckwild, and thus far, the show is proving it can fill the Jersey Shore Thursday night slot with pizzaz.
Last night’s premiere episode of Buckwild brought in 2.49 million total viewers, as well as a 1.4 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic, although I’m guessing there were more viewers closer to the 18-year-old portion of the demographic than the 49-year-old. According to Deadline, that’s more than a million viewers higher than the original Jersey Shore episode earned in 2009.
Of course, the show, which follows a group of friends living in a forest-filled area of West Virginia, although I can’t tell you which, since Virginia is forest-filled everywhere the eye can see. I’m kidding, the crew lives in Sissonville, West Virginia, and while the friends from Shain to Anna have already managed to capture a sizeable audience, the show still has a ways to go until it brings in the upwards of 9 million Jersey Shore was hitting at its peak. So Snooki, her poof, and the rest of the Shore cast are still winning as of this moment, and we’ll keep you posted if the Buckwild crew continues to pull in decent numbers on MTV.
