'Jersey Shore' Season 5 Premiere Ratings Down: Are People Losing Interest?

"Jersey Shore" returned Thursday night with its big season five premiere, which promised a return to form as the guidos and guidettes came back to Seaside from their argument-filled trip to Florence. But as we noted in our recap of the premiere, it wasn't all fun and games when they came back: The Situation was still starting fights, and Vinny was pining for home even more than he was in Italy.

All in all, the cast seemed to be showing a lack of enthusiasm to still be on the show, even throughout their enthusiasm to be back in Jersey. That lack of enthusiasm was mirrored in the ratings, as viewership was down about 1.2 million from the season four premiere in the summer of 2011.

Does that mean that people are losing interest in "Jersey Shore?" Maybe, but it's also important to note that the season four premiere was a monster, setting a record for the series. To expect the season five premiere, which doesn't have the gimmick of the cast being in Italy, to match that would be a bit unreasonable.

However, viewership gradually dropped by more than 2 million over the course of season four, so if the same trend happens here, season five could end up seeing numbers closer to season two levels than to the monster season three and first half of season four.

Through all of this, though, the MTV execs aren't likely to complain: pulling in 7.6 million total viewers and winning the night in the 12-to-34-year-olds demo among cable shows. For a show on a cable network to pull those numbers, it has to be called a big hit.

So for now, keep on fist pumping. The Shore is safe.