'Manifest' Season 2 premiere: Creator Jeff Rake reveals it has been pushed to midseason to allow uninterrupted 13-episode run
Mid-April the news was out that NBC's hit show 'Manifest' was renewed for a second season. In May, we heard the show was pushed to midseason by the network. Excited fans questioned the cause of delay because there were so many cliffhangers to resolve, starting from the reveal of a new villain "The Major" and the death of Vance (Daryl Edwards).
With so much to look forward to from the thrilling mystery, fans were desperate to understand the cause of this mysterious delay. Jeff Rake, the creator of 'Manifest', exclusively told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), "I'm told we are coming back mid-season in order to allow for all 13 episodes to run in a row with zero preemptions, which can't be achieved in the Fall."
Now we know that unlike season one, which had 16 episodes, the second installment will have 13 episodes. In fact, the first season was initially a 13-episode run, but the show's popularity urged the network to extend the count. The supernatural drama series first aired on September 24, 2018, and ended in January. The series was expected to pick up with season two this coming fall, around the same time. But the catch was, the show would have had an interrupted run. So it is good news and bad news at the same time — the wait is long but Rake assures fans that the show will return with the "regular Mondays 10 pm time slot" and run all episodes continuously without interruptions.
"Dang guess we got a long time to wait before we get to see new episodes," a Reddit user sighed and another added "hopefully they'll air all the episodes without needing to take a break. But, it's just crazy to think that when it airs midseason sometime around January the show will have been off for a whole year."
Midseason is somewhere between January and May, so yes, the wait for Manifest season 2 is a long one but for now, it is slated to release in January.
Ratings-wise, the show is in a good place. The numbers dipped considerably towards the end of season one, but that did not stop the network from renewing it. Mid-May, the series also premiered in France, and the show opened with 5.8 million viewers.
'Manifest' follows the story of airplane passengers who take off from an airport and experience minor turbulence. When they land a few hours later, they are confronted with the fact that they have lost five-and-a-half years of their life. The supernatural mystery drama is now heavily compared to Netflix's 'The Society', which follows a similar mystery. What does Rake think of that comparison? Well, he hasn't watched 'The Society' but he said the new show sounds "cool".