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Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is back as a full-time cast member on season 5 of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation! Snooki quit the show at the end of 2019 after a season filled of drama with Angelina Pivarnick. At the time, she announced that she was leaving the show due to the drama, but also to spend more time with her family. Now, after taking one season off, Snooki filmed season 5 with her castmates and will be back during the Jan. 6, 2022 premiere.
“I felt good with myself,” Nicole told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, of her decision to return. “I definitely needed a break from all the drama. I just hate drama. I love happy, positive, fun times and it just wasn’t that for a while. I needed to take a step back to figure out what was happening. But I’m excited to be back. I missed all my roomies and I had a great time this season. I enjoyed myself on vacation, I brought my daughter, and she got to hang out with all the other kids. So it was such a fun time this season.”
Season three of Jersey Shore featured major drama between Snooki/Jenni “JWoww” Farley and Angelina. Snooki announced her decision to quit after the first half of the season aired at the end of 2019. In real time, the announcement came just weeks after Angelina’s wedding to Chris Larangeira, which was filmed for the second half of season three. The tension between the women escalated at the wedding when Angelina got pissed off at JWoww, Snooki and Deena Cortese’s bridesmaids speech.
During season 4, Deena and JWoww were able to put their issues with Angelina in the past. Snooki attended the group’s vacation during one night of season 4, and she also buried the hatchet with Angelina. Doing so was just “part of” what convinced Nicole to come back for season 5, though. “I just feel like, in general, everything was so negative for me,” she explained. “I was just like, ‘I can’t be here.’ I needed to take a step back. But now everything’s great and we’re back to the fun!” Snooki confirmed, though, that there will be some drama this season, but “not drama to the point where [she]’s quitting.”
One person who was definitely happy to see Nicole back, of course, was Jenni. “It was totally a decision she made on her own, but it worked out perfectly,” JWoww added. “It was during both of our kids’ spring breaks, so she came down two days after me and [our daughters] had their days off, so they were living their best lives with virgin pina coladas, virgin miami vices, swimming, painting. They probably had a better time than we did!”
Season 5 of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation premieres on Thursday, Jan. 6 at 8:00 p.m. on MTV.