As gross and dumb and ugh as TV cancellations are at any given moment, the negative impact is compounded if the cancelled show in question left its story on a big cliffhanger. The mystery drama Manifest managed to leave its viewers with roughly three dozen unanswered questions with its deadly Season 3 finale, which aired only a few days before NBC surprisingly cancelled the on-the-bubble series. Before everyone could completely give up hope, however, creator Jeff Rake shared the news that attempts are being made to turn Season 4 into a reality. And it sounds like streaming giant Netflix is indeed a viable option, as many fans have hoped.
While Manifest's drooping year-over-year ratings and viewership averages were certainly indicators that NBC could potentially pull the plug, many fans (and likely some among the cast and crew) thought that cancellation would be avoided after the drama's first two seasons debuted on Netflix and it became the #1 TV show on the streamer's daily listings. And guess what? It has not been moved from that spot in the week since, which has to be a somewhat promising indicator of its potential success as a streaming-only drama. I mean, it obviously didn't convince anyone at NBC, but still.
Whatever the reasoning behind it, Deadline reports that Manifest's studio Warner Bros. TV and Netflix are in continuing conversations about the logistics behind what's needed to make Season 4 happen, and possibly more. Creator Jeff Rake has long discussed his six-season plan, though it's obviously way too early to be optimistic about a three-season pickup.
Execs are said to be evaluating the financial situation to see how viable it is for the streaming company to fund more of Manifest's plane-tethered mysteries with its sizable cast. Episodic budgets almost always come into play where cancellations are concerned, but Netflix obviously isn't held to the same standards and benchmarks as NBC.
Though Netflix hasn't really saved as many cancelled TV shows as one might think, considering its the first entity anyone calls on to save a show these days, one potentially good sign for Manifest is Warner Bros. TV's good standing with Netflix. Not only is it one of the companies that put together the current hit Sweet Tooth, the upcoming Neil Gaiman adaptation The Sandman and a slew of other Netflix Originals, but WBTV is also the studio behind Lucifer and Gilmore Girls, two shows that did get revived by Netflix after their respective endings. Though Gilmore Girls wasn't saved from cancellation, per se, Lucifer definitely was, and its yet-to-conclude three seasons on Netflix could be a good litmus test for what could happen with Manifest and its similarly outspoken fanbase.
Remember that all three seasons of Manifest can currently be streamed somewhere, so feel free to put it on Netflix in the background just to show the streaming giant that you care. And stay updated with all the other awesome 2021 Summer TV shows hitting primetime and otherwise soon.
