The 'Jersey Shore' Contract Numbers Are In: They're Making HOW Much?!

Yesterday we learned that the "Jersey Shore" cast had finally decided on a contract that they can all agree with, and everybody's going to Italy as planned. And "Shore" fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief.

One mystery still remained, though: how much were the "Jersey Shore" stars making? After all, it's a tradition of show business that we all get to ooh and aah over how much the stars make.

Well, Entertainment Weekly came out last night with a report on the guidos' and guidettes' incomes: apparently, the "core group" is now in six figures, and is pulling at least $100,000 per episode.

That's a massive raise for the crew. And when I say massive, I mean it'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. That number looks like peanuts now.

The pay from MTV for shooting is only a small piece of what the stars make annually, as each of them have their own endorsement deals, book deals, Wrestlemania appearances, and other ways of earning cash. But even then, Snooki made only $750,000 total in 2010. If she starts making $100k per episode, and season four has 13 episodes, that means...hold on, let me crunch some numbers here...yeah she would make $1.3 million from the show alone.

Of course, there has been talk that this will be the last season for this group, so it's understandable that they would aim for the highest pay they could get. The only thing that worries me is that Ronnie apparently signed before anyone else did...does that mean he's under the old contract? If everyone else is making $1.3 million and Ronnie goes home with $130,000 I'd feel bad for the guy.

...okay, maybe not that bad.