DJ Pauly D & Vinny Guadagnino Had to Be 'Delicate' About Hookups on Their MTV Dating Show
The smush room is back — but it won’t be getting nearly as much action this time around.
Jersey Shore stars Pauly “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio and Vinny Guadagnino have teamed up for a new show, Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny, premiering Thursday on MTV.
The series features 20 contestants facing off against one another in the hopes of winning either man’s heart. DelVecchio, 38, and Guadagnino, 31, may get to choose who stays and who goes, but the ladies hold the ultimate power to decide whose love they’re competing for between the two pals.
Sitting down with PEOPLE, the dynamic duo opened up about the experience, admitting that juggling that many potential girlfriends at once was no easy task.
“It was difficult!” DelVecchio said. “You have 20 women and they’re dating both of us. I spend time with one, and the other ones are all looking at me — they’re judging. I leave that one to go to another one, and then that one is like, ‘Why did you leave me?!’ My head was spinning the whole time.”
As a result, hooking up — an almost nightly occurrence on Jersey Shore — was far less frequent.
“It was weird for two reasons,” Guadagnino explained. “One, it would cause drama, so of course people would be upset and jealous. Then there was this other weird part where you would hook up or kiss [someone], and those girls were all friends with each other! It got really weird. Like, are you guys buddy buddy after that?”
“Kissing one of them was a nightmare,” DelVecchio said with a laugh. “They would run and throw it in the other girls’ faces. I could only imagine spending the night [with one of them]. It was too much drama to even attempt to do that. There were hookups, but we had to be delicate in that house.”
“It was almost like dangling it in front of their faces,” he added. “I felt weird spending time with just one with all the others gossiping.”
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As for what they’re both looking for?
“I am attracted to positivity, positive vibes,” said DelVecchio. “I can spot a good person from far away. I am attracted to the vibe. Obviously looks are there too, attracts your eyes, but the vibe attracts my heart.”
DelVecchio also wants to find someone that would fit into his life with 5-year-old daughter Amabella Sophia.
“I’m so selective now,” he said. “I am more picky, because she has to meet the two most important women in my life: my daughter and my mother. So it’s not just going to anybody. I think my mother has met like, two women in my life, ever. It’s a big deal for me.”
Guadagnino said he’s looking for someone who complements all aspects of his personality.
“I am a very complex person — there are elements to me that are nerdy, then there are elements to me that are ratchet,” he said. “So I like someone that has all that balance, someone that I can binge-watch some nerdy documentaries with, but then knows how to dance and twerk in the club.”
“I also want someone who’s independent, who isn’t in it for the wrong reasons,” he added. “She has to have so much of her own career going on, she doesn’t need me for anything. I want to be her fan.”
So were there any women that struck both of their fancy?
“There were some that were [for] Pauly, there were some that were [for] Vinny and there were some we called ‘swing states,’ ” Guadagnino joked. “But he’s like my brother, we don’t really fight.”
“We can date them, they can date us, and then they have the power to choose which one they like,” he continued. “We’re so opposite, so if someone really does like Pauly, she really isn’t for me.”
The guys also looked out for each other.
“Let’s say right off the bat, I knew one would definitely not work for me — I wouldn’t eliminate her, because she may work for him,” DelVecchio said. “So we had to discuss that.”
Overall, the experience was one for the books.
“It’s like Jersey Shore meets The Bachelor meets The Challenge meets Real World,” DelVecchio said. “It’s pretty wild.”
Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny premieres Thursday with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
