NBC’s New Show ‘Manifest’ Earns Full Season Order

The mystery of how a flight landed five years after it was supposed to will continue after NBC put in a full season order for Manifest.

On Thursday, NBC picked up the show for three more episodes, meaning the science fiction mystery drama will get a 16-episode freshman season.

The show is averaging 8.4 million viewers and a 1.8 rating in the key 18-49 demographic through four episodes, reports The Hollywood Reporter. After delayed viewing, the season premiere jumped to 18.4 million viewers and a 4.2 18-49 rating. That was the biggest jump among all network shows during premiere week.

Manifest is also the fourth new show of the season to land a full-season order, and only the second from NBC after the medical drama New Amsterdam. The other shows that received full seasons are CBS’ crime drama FBI and the ABC sitcom Single Parents.

Manifest was created by Jeff Rake (The Mysteries of Laura) and tells the story of a flight that was supposed to land in 2013, but does not land until 2018 after only experiencing minor turbulence. When the flight lands, everyone aboard has not aged a day. The passengers soon learn that adjusting to life is not easy, especially when they begin hearing voices and seeing hallucinations.

The cast includes Melissa Roxburgh as Michaela Stone, Josh Dallas as her brother Ben and Athena Kardanis as Ben’s wife Grace. J.R. Ramirez, Luna Blaise, Jack Messina and Parveen Kaur also star. Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis is one of the show’s executive producers.

In an interview with Collider earlier this month, Rake said he came up with the idea for the show 10 years ago and also has a six-year plan for the show’s future.

“Ultimately, I was lucky enough to get Warner Brothers and NBC excited about it last summer,” Rake told the site. “Over the years, I certainly iterated on it throughout. I found some important middle plateaus. And then, it came to me in one fell swoop. The many layers that I intend to bring to the show have been the result of my own contemplating, over the years. Now that I’m working with eight incredibly talented writers in the room with me, I have the benefit of collaborating with all of them to fill in all the gaps in between.”

The next episode of Manifest airs Monday at 10 p.m. ET. In “Connecting Flights,” Cal (Messina) and Ben (Dallas) go on a strange adventure that helps Ben understand his son’s abilities. Michaela has to protect her ex-fiancé (Ramirez) from trouble at work while keeping her romantic feelings hidden.

Photo credit: Peter Kramer / NBC