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When the cast of “Jersey Shore” gets back from Italy later this year, three of the cast members will start work on their own reality shows. MTV said Thursday that it had ordered two such spin-offs, one featuring Paul DelVecchio, known as DJ Pauly D, and the other featuring Nicole Polizzi and Jenni Farley, known as Snooki and JWoww.

Each show will “chronicle the lives all three lead away from their summer shares and housemates,” MTV said in a news release. The network ordered twelve episodes of each show.

The deals for the new shows not-so-subtly masks the fact that the network is preparing for the day when the original “Jersey Shore” loses some of its spray-tan luster. The show’s third season drew an average of 7.9 million viewers a week last winter, making it MTV’s biggest hit by far, but viewership sagged somewhat as the season progressed. A fourth season, produced in Italy this spring, will be broadcast later this year.

The two spin-offs, which have not been named, will be produced by 495 Productions, the same company that makes “Jersey Shore.” They will enter production later in the year and will debut on MTV sometime in 2012.

As early as last fall, executives at MTV were eyeing Mr. DelVecchio, Ms. Polizzi and Ms. Farley as the three most likely candidates for shows of their own. Mr. DelVecchio’s show, which was optioned by MTV last December, will focus on his budding career as a DJ. Ms. Polizzi and Ms. Farley’s show will be about their friendship away from “Jersey Shore.”