Not even Netflix wants more of NBC's Manifest

The streaming service will not be resurrecting the recently canceled series

By Sam Barsanti | June 22, 2021 | 3:04am

TV News Netflix

Not even Netflix wants more of NBC's Manifest

Josh Dallas from Manifest Photo: Amy Sussman

Earlier this month, NBC canceled Manifest, its latest and most oddly Christian-themed attempt to capture some of the Lost magic that ABC had a decade ago, after three seasons. The timing of the decision was somewhat surprising to the show’s fans, especially since a lot of those fans were new, as the show had just premiered on Netflix and quickly claimed the top spot on the notably ill-defined “Top 10" list on the streaming service—a placement that could mean anything from “who knows?” to “nobody knows.” Either way, Netflix was adamant that people were definitely watching Manifest on Netflix, but NBC evidently wasn’t convinced that that would translate to anything other than it paying a lot of money to keep making a show that is only popular on Netflix (sort of like how nobody watched You until it hit the streaming service).

Unlike with You, though, Netflix has no interest in paying some of its own money to keep making more Manifest, with Deadline reporting that it has passed on picking up the series for a Netflix-exclusive season four. Deadline says Warner Bros. has now given up on any plans to keep the show alive, since going somewhere other than Netflix would’ve required “navigating a maze of digital rights.” This all means that Manifest will now go down as yet another twisty mystery show that will leave an untold number of questions unanswered, with Deadline noting that series creator Jeff Rake originally pictured it as a “six-season series” (which is pretty optimistic for any show these days, right?) that will now instead be ending after three.