Jersey Shore stars DJ Pauly D and Vinny reveal why they are taking a Double Shot at Love
A group of 20 lucky ladies are about to get two bachelors for the price of one.
DJ Pauly D and Vinny Guadagnino are taking their bromance to the next level in MTV's dating series Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D and Vinny. The real-life BFFs, who have already done eight seasons of TV together with Jersey Shore, jumped at the chance to find the girl of their dreams, but only if it was with the other by their side. Think The Bachelor, Jersey Shore-style, with 20 women, two reality stars, and one shot at love.
Ahead of Double Shot's premiere, EW chatted with Pauly D and Vinny about their hesitations with doing the show, still finding a way to wingman for each other, and their daily chats with the incarcerated member of MVP, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You guys met 10 years ago on Jersey Shore and have become such good friends, so why was this the next step in your bromance?
PAULY D: I always wanted to do a dating type show, and then when it came to us with my best friend Vinny as well, I was like, "I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity that both of us are single, let's do this together." There's nobody else I'd rather do it with.
VINNY: It was a perfect combination, because Pauly and I would always love to do any show together and we always wanted our own show, but we were also single and I'm avid Bachelor fan and I love dating shows, so just the two things combined was perfect timing and it worked out.
Did you have any hesitations? I've seen the first episode and you seemed a bit nervous, Vinny.
VINNY: I definitely had hesitations, because I'm a bit pessimistic when it comes to the whole dating thing, and I'm picky and shy, and me being the center of attention and juggling 20 women at the same time is not something that I would normally do. But I like to take chances and experience new things, so I was open to it, and that's why it's called A Shot at Love, because I was taking a shot at it.
PAULY D: Listen, being in the public eye, it's difficult to meet genuine women that are into you for the right reasons. And here, we are going into a television show with girls wanting to be on television. So to find real love, I was a bit hesitant. But, I was able to sit down for a period of time with these women and build connections and see who is actually genuinely looking for love, because that is what I went in for.
The women didn't know what celebrity they were coming on for, with some of the guesses ranging from The Rock to Post Malone, so were you worried about them having different expectations or maybe not even knowing who you are?
PAULY D: Definitely. I was like, "Oh no, what if they knew it was us and ran for the hills and quit the show?" [Laughs] I was definitely worried that they wouldn't like who it was.
VINNY: We were kind of torn the whole time, like, do you want someone who knows who you are? Because then maybe they aren't in it for the right reasons. But then you also want to be their type in some sort of way. It all worked out. We were all in it and we got to vet out who was really there for us and who just wanted to date a celebrity.
Vinny, what did your mom think about all of this?
VINNY: I didn't really tell her much. At this point of my life, when I do all these shows, my mom is in Staten Island and really removed from what I do on TV and everything I do is fine to her. Like, "Yeah, go ahead, Vin, go find love. Go do your little show." She doesn't really care, but I bet you when things get more serious my mom will start to open her eyes a little bit more. But I can do no wrong in her eyes right now.
I hope you didn't tell Uncle Vino, because he'd probably try to take Pauly's spot.
VINNY: You know that's going to happen — stay tuned.
How did you go about making sure that this really felt like a Pauly and Vinny dating show and not just another dating show?
PAULY: We wanted to put our personality into this. So if you're dating us, you have to date both of us basically, because whoever I end up with is going to have this guy for the rest of their life anyway since he's my best friend. And then also, we're pranksters, so you have to constantly be keeping up with our pranks all season. Without spoiling it, how did the girls react to your pranks? I think they were waking up some mornings in fear of, what are they going to prank us with next? It was bad. I got to a point where I was starting to feel bad. But it was good because it kept them on their toes and got to show them a little bit of what it's honestly like to date us because I generally do love to prank people.
VINNY: You saw the house, there's a tanning bed, a gym, sneakers and gold chains on the wall. You can't get any more Pauly and Vinny than that.
You guys have talked to your fair of women in a lot of different settings, but what is it like that first night, sitting there by yourself with 10 women and wondering what to do now?
PAULY: For me, going into it, I was like, "This is going to be so easy, so many women, it's going to be great." But actually being in it, it's so difficult. You have 20 women, 20 different personalities, only two guys, I'm here with my best friend, we're dating the same women, and it's a lot of work getting to know all these women — and it's a lot of drama. Because you get to know one, the others are mad. Then you get to know the others and the one you just got to know is getting mad. There's just so much drama in one household.
VINNY: Like I said, I don't like being the center of attention. I've talked to multiple women on a non-emotional level, but I can only share my feelings with one person, so it took a lot for me to really date and be vulnerable and give my true feelings to multiple women at the same time. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really like the feeling of it, but that's just who I am and I think the girls noticed that and that's why they felt comfortable around me too, because they knew I wasn't trying to be a player.
Vinny, you mentioned that you're a fan of The Bachelor, so did you guys do any research of that or other dating shows to know what to expect and how best to handle this?
VINNY: When Jersey Shore was off the air, I was literally on Twitter every week live-tweeting The Bachelor, being part of Bachelor Nation, so I was accidentally doing research about it and knowing the game, never thinking I would be in the hot seat for it. But I'll tell you, any type of preparation does not train you for actually being there. It's completely different, it's hard as hell, and there is no training in the world that can prepare you for that.
Throughout the Jersey Shore run, you've been each other's wingmen, but is that even possible here? How does that work when you're basically competing for the same women?
PAULY: It's cool, because I can do that for him, like maybe when I spend some alone time with one of the girls I might learn something about one of the girls that I can run and tell Vinny that he didn't know yet. And that is how I would wingman for him.
VINNY: We were ultimately always wingmanning for each other, even when we were on the dates. It was a hard process and we had each other so we had each other to lean on and talk to. You saw us in the barbershop like deliberating and getting advice by gossiping with each other, so that was all wingmanning.
Considering that, was there ever an instance were maybe a friendly rivalry or jealousy came out when you were both interested in the same girl?
VINNY: We kind of left that more for the girls to decide. We told them that it was okay if they liked the both of us, and Pauly and I are just going to do our thing individually. Like, I'm going to date her, he's going to date her. And then wherever the cards fall, they fall. That is just how it is with me and him, we're so close and we have that relationship.
Now having gone through it together, is this even something that you could imagine doing alone?
PAULY: No, I was glad that I was able to do it with Vinny. I don't know if I could do it by myself.
VINNY: Same here.
What can you tease about what else we should expect?
PAULY: With this show, it's not a typical dating show. To me, it's like five shows in one: It's a reality show, it's like Jersey Shore, it's a dating show, but then it's also a challenge/competition show. So you're getting all those aspects lumped into one.
VINNY: And you'll be surprised. Like when I first went into it, I wasn't really that optimistic, but once I started to actually get to know the women and talk to them, I was pretty surprised by how real the feelings ended up getting.
Jersey Shore: Family Vacation has been renewed for a third season, so when can we expect to see that?
VINNY: We're in it. You're already going to see a lot of stuff that passed on the show, like all of Mike's court situation, his wedding, a couple more trips, and we're still filming it. That show writes itself.
PAULY: Like Nicole's pregnant, Deena just had a baby, Mike's in jail, Ronnie and rehab, everyone just has something going on.
VINNY: So it's definitely full of content. You're seeing a lot more into our normal life. Because when we were kids, our whole life was going away and going to party. And now we're adults and people have real life adult things going on, and that's what you're seeing. You watch us growing up as kids partying, now you're watch us grow up as adults going through real life drama.
You mentioned Mike being in jail, have you been able to keep in contact with him?
PAULY: Yeah, we talk to Mike almost every single day. We have this app so we can talk to him and he's doing really great, he's in good spirits. He's got a lot to come home to so he's happy about that. And he sees his wife, Lauren, like once a week. He's doing great, really positive.
Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D and Vinny premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
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