MTV Gets Stingy: Season Six of 'Jersey Shore' to Feature a 'Cheaper' Cast

Even Snooki isn’t safe from outsourcing, it seems.

MTV announced this week that after season five, “Jersey Shore” will be completely recast, allowing the current cast to go on to do their own lucrative spin-offs, and MTV to go about the business of hiring a brand new crew, who will doubtlessly work for much lower wages.

"After this group comes back from Italy and shoots season five this summer, that will be the end for them,” the show’s producers told US Weekly, adding that the new cast will be “a lot cheaper.”

As we reported back in April, after a recent round of negotiation, the "core group" of "Jersey Shore" cast members are now pulling in at least $100,000 per episode. At those prices, it's no wonder MTV is looking to do a reboot. That's bigger than their previous per-episode salaries by a factor of ten! You might remember that back before season two, the crew re-negotiated to start making $10,000 an episode.

Of course, being on "Jersey Shore" has also been incredibly lucrative for everyone from Snooki to The Situation, who has made forays into "Dancing with the Stars", his own line of vitamin products, and a number of big-name endorsements to the tune of $5 million last year. He has also been able to parlay his success at with "Jersey Shore" into a potential new movie career. God help us.

If you think “Jersey Shore” is raw right now, just picture what a low-rent version might look like. Oh wait, that’s called “The Bad Girls Club.”

So what do you think about a cut-rate cast of "The Jersey Shore"? How good will a "Jersey Shore" with no Snooki and no Sitch? Will you transfer your allegiance to a new cast of unknowns, or is "Jersey Shore" dead to you after season five?