Manifest was given an emergency landing.
After being canceled by NBC in June 2021, the mystery drama was given a second chance at Netflix after it was a streaming success. The streamer renewed Manifest for a fourth and final season in Aug. 2021, but for its creator Jeff Rake, this wasn’t a shock.
“When you’re the showrunner, you’re like the coach for the team. You want to keep your cast, writers, crew, everybody feeling hopeful,” Rake told Entertainment Weekly of his post-cancellation position. “So I assumed that role right away.”
When Rake saw that the show hit Netflix’s Top 10 immediately after dropping on the streamer, he began calling for a renewal on social media and urging Warner Bros. Television—which had produced and distributed the show—to contact Netflix. But it wasn’t exactly a smooth takeoff.
“Usually, when a show drops on Netflix, it’s eight episodes, 10 episodes. For us, it was a 42-episode dump,” Rake explained. “It’s hard for people to watch 42 entire episodes over a weekend or a week. So at first, Netflix took a wait-and-see approach.”
