Lynette Veit: Greene Publishing, Inc.

When a network brings together just the right ingredients for a mega hit show like “Jersey Shore,” the show that made Snooki a household name, it's not entirely unexpected that it would try to replicate that magic.

And so, five years after “Jersey Shore” ended, enter “Floribama Shore,”  MTV's newest entry in the “Shore” line, this time, as the title implies, along the Florida Panhandle west to Alabama.  With a new cast and different locale (Panama City Beach), MTV takes the same concept of eight young adult housemates sharing a summer abode on the beach, following their daily lives and interactions over several episodes.

Among those eight housemates is Gus Smyrnios, a 2013 graduate of Aucilla Christian Academy, who hails from Perry, Fl.

The son of Gus Smyrnios and Kristin Smyrnios, the younger Smyrnios, born in Ft. Myers, is the oldest of four children, with two younger sisters and a younger brother. His family moved to Perry when he was about seven or eight years old.  

In high school, being in show business was “never in the plan,” he says. It was something he never even thought about, even though he was sort of the class clown who loved to perform and make people laugh.

Still, his future plans were a little more on the serious side – at age 19, he sent in his application to be a state trooper.   When he was turned down, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines, and was ready to go and serve in the military, until a skateboard accident and a broken arm that required surgery, a metal plate and seven or eight months of recuperation time put those plans on hold.

In the interim, while his arm healed, he went back to college and earned his A.A. degree in Criminal Justice.

However, without the money to go on to Florida State University (FSU) for his bachelor's degree, he went back to the recruiting office and again enlisted with the Marines.  All the paperwork was signed and he was ready to go again, when, just a week and half, or maybe two weeks out from his leave date for boot camp, he joined a pick-up game of soccer with some buddies and ended up with a badly broken leg that needed surgery and a metal rod.

While he was in recovery from his second painful break, he had a hard time understanding why life was “throwing me all these curve balls” when all he wanted to do was serve his country.

It was during this time that he was dating a girl who was in the modeling business, and happened to go along with her to one of her photo shoots.  Someone there, at her photo shoot, liked the way he looked and asked him if he had ever thought about modeling.

He had his first photo shoot, and then a photo composite, which he sent out to all the major agencies in Florida, eventually signing with about seven or eight of them.

From that, there was several smaller modeling jobs – ads or promotions for clothing and fragrance companies like Armani, Coach and Hugo Boss – but his biggest modeling job by far has been for book covers.   Look closely at the next romance novel you buy; the guy on the cover looking back at you just might be Smyrnios.  In about a year and a half, he's been featured on 40 book covers, two of which sold within the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, he was steadily posting news and updates about his career on Instagram and Facebook, and it was his postings on social media that caught the attention of MTV.  Representatives reached out to him and asked him if he had ever considered being on a television show like “Floribama Shore,” the new reality show being cast at the time, a spinoff of “Jersey Shore,” but with a decidedly Southern flair.

For him, the audition process began with three or four rounds of phone interviews, and a “self-tape,” something like a video log of his daily life and what it was like.  Once he sent those in, he was brought down to Panama City Beach for face-to-face interviews and final auditions, along with about 60 or 70 other people.  The entire process took about a month and a half, which is fairly quick, considering that one of his friends on the show, cast mate Jeremiah Buoni, spent nearly a year going through the process.

The reason it went so quickly with him, says Smyrnios, is that he was the last person to be brought in on the show, to fill that final spot.

MTV gathered its “Floribama Shore” cast in the Panama City Beach house in May of this year, and the cameras rolled continuously, 24/7, day and night, as Smyrnios recalls, until nearly the end August.  No days off.  Not even an hour off.  Even when you were sleeping, the cameras were rolling.

“Floribama Shore” airs on MTV, Monday nights at 10 p.m. eastern, 9 p.m. central time; its debut broadcast was Nov. 20.

This past Monday, December 18, was the fifth episode, right at the halfway mark of the eight-show first season, which concludes with the Jan. 8, 2018 broadcast.

Whether or not “Floribama Shore” will have a second season remains to be seen, as well as whether or not it will be a mega hit like “Jersey Shore.”  Only time and ratings will tell.

From all those curve balls life once threw at him, Smyrnios has made a base hit.