Manifest continues to show its streaming popularity by tying Tiger King's record for most days spent in Netflix's #1 spot. The NBC series premiered in 2018 and was heralded as television's newest Lost because of its twisty, supernatural mystery. Manifest begins with the passengers of Flight 828 when they land in New York after what feels like a relatively normal trip, except they've been deemed missing for five years. Initial strong ratings pushed the series to run for three seasons on NBC.
Sadly, though, Manifest's viewership dwindled over the years, and NBC pulled the plug on the series just days after season 3 came to a close in June. As series creator Jeff Rake had planned for six seasons, Manifest left several plot threads dangling. Fans quickly began to campaign for a resurrection on social media, and there was some hope that a streaming service like Netflix would pick it up. A week after talks began, though, Netflix declined to renew Manifest, and efforts to save the series came to an end.
Around the same time as Manifest season 3 concluded on NBC, the first two seasons arrived on Netflix and quickly became the streamer's latest acquired hit. As TVLine notes, it first debuted on Netflix's Daily Top 10 list in the #2 spot before moving up to #1. Manifest then remained there for a total of 27 days, which very nearly became a record. Unfortunately, the return of Virgin River over the weekend booted Manifest from the top spot. This means Manifest is now tied with Tiger King for the show to spent the second longest amount of time at #1; Ginny & Georgia boasts the record of 29 days.
At the time of this writing, Manifest is still holding onto #2. This paints a picture of the series being a major draw for Netflix, which makes one wonder why the streamer opted to not pick it up for season 4. There could be a number of factors behind this. For example, the cost for Manifest might be too high, or the Top 10 numbers might not actually amount to much in the grand scheme of things. Still, it looks like Manifest has found a new, steady audience.
Despite the lack of a streaming or cable pickup, Rake has reaffirmed his determination to complete Manifest's story in some form. Most recently, Rake said he's hoping to make a 2-hour Manifest movie that could answer all the lingering questions from season 3. Whether it will ever come to pass remains to be seen, but Netflix's viewing figures confirm there's still interest in the mystery behind Manifest. Maybe that will help Rake in his quest to bring closure to the fans.
Source: TVLine