MTV is taking on winter break! Falling on the heels of its ratings success Floribama Shore, the network is officially launching a wintertime equivalent in Winter Break: Hunter Mountain.
The show, which premieres Feb. 27 at 10:30 p.m. ET, will consist of an eight-episode series produced by SallyAnn Salsano and 495 Prods, reports Deadline on Tuesday.
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In Winter Break, which is set in the beautiful ski resort of Hunter Mountain, “the party moves from the beach to the mountains” as eight young people on vacation drink, fight and hook up, as per the show’s initial promo.
The cast members, who are shown jumping in the snow, snogging and taking shots in the promo, are:Taylor James (TJ) Angus, Rutland, MA; Jeffrey Brewer (J. Brew), Manchester, NH; Alessandra Camerlingo, Blairstown, NJ; Jillian Metz, Manalapan, NJ; Alex Shinder (Sheen), Hoboken, NJ; Taylar Shinn, Oroville, CA; Marc Vinda, Bergenfield, NJ; and Carissa Witham, Waterbury, CT.
MTV is clearly capitalizing on the success of Floribama Shore, which consisted of a very similar premise on the beaches of Panama City Beach.
The series premiere the Jersey Shore spin-off, drew 846,000 total viewers, according to Deadline, and debuted with a rating of 0.94 in the core 18 to 34-year-old demographics group.
That made it MTV‘s biggest new series launch in three years and second biggest in total viewers. It also ranked at the time as one of the top five new unscripted cable launches of 2017.
It looks like the show also kept those who tuned in. The second part of the two-hour premiere retained 93 percent of its viewers and maintained a 0.87 rating in the same demographic group.
The network is also bringing back its original shoreside success for a reunion series, Jersey Shore: Family Reunion, which is filming in Miami, Florida and will premiere in 2018.
While cast members Deena Nicole Cortese, Paul “Pauly D” Delvecchio, Jenni “Jwoww” Farley, Vinny Guadagnino, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will all return for the revival, Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola will be absent because she didn’t want to be around her ex, Ortiz-Magro, Polizzi revealed on her podcast, It’s Happening With Snooki & Joey.
“Everyone’s asking why Sammi’s not doing it. You have to ask her that — I’m not gonna speak for her,” she said in December. “But Sammi is just in such a happy place that I feel like she doesn’t want to jump back into that drama if it does happen. And being that there was a lot of Ron and Sam drama when we did film, it was just really hard on both of them. So I just think she doesn’t want that anymore.”
Photo credit: MTV