I know, that was the most obvious headline ever, wasn’t it? But let me explain: not only should The Situation have been sent to rehab years ago, but MTV was well aware that he had a very serious drinking problem. For years. And they did a super job of handling it.
From TMZ:
MTV had threatened to replace The Situation on “Jersey Shore” many times over the past two years due to his excessive drinking — sources connected with the production tell TMZ.
According to sources, producers from MTV and 495 Productions sat Situation down for the first time while shooting Season 2 in 2010 — explaining his drinking had become such a problem … it was making it hard to shoot the show.
We’re told Sitch promised to pull himself together — but it quickly unraveled during Season 3, and producers had to speak with him again … this time threatening to replace him on the show if he didn’t clean up his act.
Sitch agreed again — and made a concerted effort to reel in his bad habits between Seasons 3 and 4. We’re told Situation showed promise in Italy during Season 4, but once the crew got back to the States … he was back to his old ways. This prompted another sit-down … and another threat of recasting.
Now, MTV’s got the opposite problem — Situation’s in rehab and sobering up completely. As a result, sources tell us 495 Productions is looking for new castmates to add to the show … in the hopes of phasing Sitch out entirely.
We reached out to MTV for comment … which insists, “There are no plans to replace the cast of ‘Jersey Shore.'”
I don’t even know. I was going to say that this seems like a really shitty situation, but I don’t want to make such obvious puns, especially when this whole story just seems sort of gross. It seems like MTV would either send The Situation to rehab when he started making it difficult for other people to do their jobs or they’d just encourage it, since that’s what the show is all about. I think it’s a little weird that MTV scolded Sitch here to maintain just the right level of hot drunk mess to make the show entertaining.
Look, I watch this show, I’m not going to deny that. But it was always a group of people getting together in a house to party and do what they would do anyway, regardless of cameras. Honestly, if a couple of years ago a camera crew had been interested in paying me ridiculous amounts of money to follow me to the gay bar and put on a bit of a show, I would have considered it. But all these recent developments – the idea of having a pregnant Snooki and a newly sober Situation living in that house – are just icky.
What do you guys think? Are you going to keep watching, or is it just not fun anymore?