Go home, Party Down South, you’re drunk.
Citing a negative effect on its image, the coastal city of Pensacola, Florida has asked CMT “reality” show Party Down South to leave and take its Southern partying ways somewhere else. Locals launched a successful campaign against the series, which was set to start filming its second season in Pensacola Beach, pointing to Party Down South’s promiscuity and reckless, booze-fueled abandonment. The show is produced by 495 Productions—the same outfit that brought us Jersey Shore, another location-based beach-trash show that also inspired a backlash from that coastal community.
Small businesses in Pensacola rely on the tourism industry, and Party Down South was actually making money for the beach town. But as the locals learned about the content of the show, they determined it was better cut ties with the show now, so as not to tarnish Pensacola’s reputation. According to Julian MacQueen, a hotelier interviewed in the original USA Today article, “We spent millions and millions of dollars investing in an image for Pensacola Beach that gets away from the whole Redneck Riviera crap. I hate that image. That’s not who we are.” MacQueen broke a $1 million contract with the production company to get them to leave.
No word yet on what unsuspecting beach community Party Down South and 495 will colonize next, though USA Today reports they’re currently scouting Fort Myers. Still, as news of Pensacola’s action has spread, so has the show’s bad reputation: As the company looks for another location, officials in other cities have bluntly told producers, "We saw the news and we don't want you."