After 10 years of fist-pumping and one night stands, the Jersey Shore’s Pauly “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio and Vinny “The Keto Guido” Guadagnino began their new MTV show, “Double Shot at Love With DJ Pauly D and Vinny,” in hopes of finding their one true love. However, these bachelors have found anything but.
As a wise guido named Ronnie Magro once said, “Never fall in love at the Jersey Shore.”
In “Double Shot at Love,” 20 women competed for the attention of the two “Jersey Shore” stars. Ten of the women arrived in the first episode, unknowing of the celebrity they were to vie after, and the rest arrived the following episode. Each woman had the chance to win the affections of both men, hence the title of the show.
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The “Bachelor”-esque show takes place in a Jersey Shore-themed mansion, also known as the “Guido Palace,” which includes its own barbershop exclusively for Pauly D and Vinny, an outdoor gym and tanning bed (A.K.A. two-thirds of the duo’s motto of “GTL”), a designated “smush” room (ew) with furry leopard print-lined walls, a Pauly D-graffitied motorcycle, a gold chained staircase and an in-house club. Pauly D even took it upon himself to nail his own chains to the walls of his bedroom.
Each episode oozes with references to the original “Jersey Shore” series. Bringing back the shore store, Pauly D and Vinny design a game where the contestants “air out their dirty laundry,” otherwise known as revealing each other’s secrets. Some episodes even included special guest appearances by Angelina Pivarnick, Jenni “Jwoww” Farley, Ronnie Magro and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.
With each appearance came a new challenge for the contestants. Angelina had the women pair up to scavenge the mansion for body parts, which were to be assembled into the human body, and the winning pair earned a date with one of the two men. On a group trip to Staten Island, Snooki grilled them with questions relating to their sex lives and careers, going as far to ask if any of the women had STDs. In a later episode, Jwoww and Ronnie team up and hook each woman up to a lie detector test, asking them a diverse set of questions.
By episode 13, four women were left, and after a day spent with Pauly D’s and Vinny’s mothers, both men hailed the final cabs of the season. Alysse Joyner, of New York City, and Elle Wilson, from Philadelphia, remained Vinny’s final two, and Derynn Paige, of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and Nikki Hall from LA were Pauly D’s final picks.
When it came down to the final decisions, three women were sent home instead of just two. Vinny sent Elle home in a cab, leaving Joyner as the sole winner of “Double Shot at Love.” Yes, you heard right. Pauly D sent home both women in a split-second decision, deciding instead to “ride solo.”
In the five months between the final episode ending and the airing of the reunion, within which Joyner and Vinny needed to keep their relationship a secret, the duo had a falling out after he was not able to keep the relationship afloat over text.
“Double Shot at Love” was a fun, “Jersey Shore” spinoff at first watch, but this show has glaring faults and gaps within each episode, which may explain why neither Pauly D nor Vinny found love.
Here are some specific instances where DJ Pauly D and the “Keto Guido” went wrong.
Time Constraint and Unfair Advantages
“Double Shot at Love” was tainted by the show’s inability to accommodate fairly for each woman and provide a reasonable amount of time to build stronger relationships between the two men and contestants.
Women found themselves eliminated without having had a one-on-one date session as other women had, even late in the season, and other women were unable to open themselves up with such a short amount of time to adjust to the new experience.
Hall had been on many dates with Pauly D by the season’s end, but other women had yet to have the chance to go on one date. For Wilson, the time wasn’t enough to open up or get to know the two men well enough to choose until the last minute.
With the competition working against the women as well, this puts even more weight on these already problematic issues.
Misjudgment of Character
Throughout the duration of the show, both men made questionable decisions. In episode 7, which is suitably titled “Hurricane Angelina,” the men send home their youngest contestant, 22-year-old Michele “Mish” Gao after a messy confrontation with Angelina.
After Hall declined a drink from Angelina, Mish steps in to provide support saying, “It’s her personal belief.” Angelina, with a mission to push the women to their limits, immediately came at Mish saying she didn’t belong in her “family.”
Fans on Twitter erupted in disbelief at Angelina’s overreaction to the situation. On June 27, during the reunion episode,
@R_rf_33 tweeted, “Wasn’t Angelina like the outcast and they finally let her sleep in the house now she’s running around acting like a thug?? Talking about you can’t be a part of my family!! Girl you weren’t even apart of the family #DoubleShotAtLove.”
Another user, @BreeZielinski, said, “After finishing #DoubleShotAtLove I seen the real true colours of Pauly, Vinny and most definitely Angelina. Super disrespectful people, who think they’re entitled… shame.”
At the cab ceremony, Mish was sent home after not passing Angelina’s test, with both men saying she wouldn’t be able to live under their lifestyle with constant criticism. While she is more sensitive than the other women, her support for Hall went unacknowledged, and both men failed to recognize the difference between criticism coming from a close friend and hate coming from a stranger.
Mish was there for a shot at love, and being disrespected by one of the guys’ closest friends would definitely have more of an impact than if she were being bashed by a stranger. Even in the reunion episode, Mish held her ground well against Angelina. In short, Mish was judged unfairly by the three “Jersey Shore” cast members.
Poor Decision-Making Skills
Maria Elizondo’s elimination was one of the most controversial on the show. In the second-to-last episode, Elizondo, a fan favorite, was sent home due to her anxiety and not wanting to reveal too much on camera, which is commendable, to say the least. Vinny’s choice to send her home in the next cab over Elle Wilson, who had only recently chosen between the two men, was undeniably questionable.
During the episode’s airtime, Vinny tweeted, “Maria was a very interesting person and we had a great mental/weird connection…but it never grew from there. Glad she was a fan favorite and she was compatible with the audience but that doesn’t mean she was fully compatible with me. Tough choices at the end. #DoubleShotAtLove.”
In response, @nichaelamicole tweeted back saying, “I’m so disappointed in your decision-making skills,” and @Danacaldararo replied, “You’re gonna vote off probably the best girl for you but keep someone that JUST decided between you and your best friend? Okay.” The decision did not add up, but there is a bigger, broader issue that ultimately led to the downfall of a “Double Shot at Love.”
From Heartbreak to Empowerment
Many feelings were crushed, many tears were shed and many hearts were broken in the making of this show, but the contestants left the reunion episode with heads held high and middle fingers held even higher.
The women were there for a double shot at love, but instead, the show proved to be a waste of time and pit of the specific brand of incessant chaos and drama that the only the cast of “Jersey Shore” can truly know. Though some of the women have unresolved issues with the two bachelors, they left together stronger than before.
@JM1SSYxo tweeted saying, “Let’s be honest here for a sec. These guys for real did every single girl dirty and just wasted all of their time. They all deserved better & all the spilt tea..hmm makes me not even wanna watch the new JS. Like I’m so unimpressed w their attitude toward women. #doubleshotatlove.”
After numerous attempts by MTV and the two men to make the women look bad at the reunion, Twitter erupted, revealing the hidden anger and unresolved tension that arose over the five-month break. Hall, Joyner, Wilson and the other contestants revealed the truth behind “Double Shot at Love” and both men on Twitter, but they were all able to overcome and bond over the experience.
One of the contestants, B-Lashes said at the end of the reunion interview, “At the end of the day, we should be really proud of ourselves. We are strong females, and like, maybe we’ll find a tanner guido next time.”
Afterward, Marissa Lucchese tweeted a group photo of the women lifting their middle fingers, captioned, “Whelp! We’re all single! Hope you enjoyed! #doubleshotatlove.”
Turns out, Ronnie’s advice to “never fall in love at the Jersey Shore” is a motto that these two guidos are committed to.
