'Manifest' Marks Another Milestone for Netflix Ahead of 4th Season Return

10/01/2021 01:47 pm EDT

In the wake of its recent pick-up by Netflix for a fourth and final season, Manifest is pulling serious numbers for the streaming service. Deadline reports that Manifest returned to top Nielsen's weekly U.S. streaming chart, racking up almost 1.4 billion minutes of total viewing from Aug. 23 to 29. Manifest currently has 42 hour-long episodes available on Netflix. 

Manifest is the latest show that Netflix has saved after a network cancellation, and showrunner Jeff Rake recently opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about what made up the streaming service's mind after NBC pulled the plug. Manifest has a small but passionate fanbase, and the social media hashtag #SaveManifest was everywhere after the initial cancellation. Rake explained that seeing the fans rally so intensely around the show was an incredibly moving experience for him.

"I've had shows canceled before and this is the first time that I experienced such a wave of support among the fandom," Rake explained. "A small group of super fans formed a Twitter group and said, 'We got you Jeff. #SaveManifest. The campaign is beginning.' So before we even had a chance to lift a finger to figure out if we need a PR campaign to help save us, the fans rose up and created this campaign and spread the word — which was incredibly rewarding and heartening."

However, while the fan support was great, It wasn't enough to save the show alone. However, the first three seasons of Manifest were doing massive numbers on Netflix. "Fan enthusiasm is always great to see, but it really isn't the emails or tweets — it was all about the viewing," Netflix head of global TV Bela Bajaria explained. "To save a show in this way, it has to have that fan viewing. I appreciate their passion and being connected to the characters, but the viewing is the thing that saved the show."

When Rake was given the good news that Netflix would finish Manifest's story, he gave the streaming execs three options: a two-hour movie, a six-episode limited series, or a full season. "I gave them the small, the medium, and the large," Rake said. Netflix chose a 20-episode final season with a much larger budget than they had on NBC. While the final details aren't quite settled, it will likely be split into two parts, with the first round of episodes airing in 2022. 

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