Cancelled TV Series Dominates Streaming Charts After Netflix Revival

Before Squid Game arrived and took over the entire streaming world, Manifest was the hottest series on Netflix. The NBC series has been exploding on Netflix ever since it was unceremoniously cancelled by NBC after its third season, leading Netflix to bring it back for a fourth and final season that will wrap up the story. Around the time that Netflix announced it would be saving Manifest, the series was riding high on top of the streaming charts.

According to Nielsen, Manifest was one of the biggest streaming shows online From September 6th to September 12th. 831 million minutes of Manifest were streamed over that span, making it the most-streamed acquired series on streaming and the third-biggest show on Netflix. Only Lucifer and Clickbait posted better numbers for Netflix over that same period, and they had just released brand new episodes.

Manifest had two major streaming waves on Netflix this year. It first gained popularity when the first two seasons of the series were added to Netflix early in the summer, around the time the show was cancelled by NBC. The following months saw a massive fan campaign for a network or service to save the series, with Netflix seeming like the best option given just how well Manifest was performing on the service. Then Netflix added the third season to its lineup and the fans flocked to Manifest once more.

In September, Netflix announced that it would be bringing back Manifest for an additional season. There will be a total of 20 episodes in the fourth season, and that will be enough for creator Jeff Rake to finish the story as he originally intended.

"Given that I've had to go through the thought exercise this summer of how to get to the original endgame in two episodes, six episodes, or nine episodes, I feel like it's an embarrassment of riches to have to have 20 episodes to tell the rest of the story," Rake told EW after Manifest was saved. "So yes, I have always talked about three more seasons — and part of that was chronological, because it's always been my goal get to the series finale in real time in accordance with the five and a half years that the passengers had back — and that might have to adjust somewhat depending on how these episodes roll out. The good news is I am absolutely confident that 20 episodes gives me enough time to tell the entirety of the story as I always intended to. When I've talked in the past about having a roadmap all the way to the end of series, that didn't mean that I had a roadmap for literally every single episode. I have a roadmap with a series of twists and turns and flags in the sand that we would ultimately hit in order to tell the the core stories within our mythology and within our relationship drama. So it will not be a particularly difficult exercise to overlay that same exact roadmap onto 20 episodes. It will be quite organic."

Have you been watching Manifest on Netflix this year? Are you excited for the final season? Let us know in the comments!