Director Jeff Rake's 'Manifest' has received an order for an additional three episodes which will extend the formerly 13-episodes Season 1 to 16 episodes. The show follows the incidents of Montego Air Flight 828 which disappeared for almost five years and returned only to find out that none of the passengers have aged a day. Other than involving the element of time lapse, the show also uses mythological tales to showcase the mental turmoil that the passengers are experiencing after their return. 

While NBC's decision comes right after the premiere of Episode 4, it is not much of a surprise that the network has considered extending the show by three more episodes. 'Manifest' has broken all records for NBC, as just within two days of the first episode's premiere it had set new records for the channel adding +1.28 of a rating point in adults 18-49 and +4.9 million viewers overall. Following the second episode which aired on October 2, the show had also added a whopping 5.7 million viewers to its credit, after three days of playback. In fact, Rake's mythological sci-fi has managed to crush the viewership of the 'Will & Grace' revival which itself had broken all records last year. 

However, 'Manifest' managed to surpass that with a lift in viewership by almost 68%, which is probably the highest rise that NBC has seen. Hence, the news about the additional three episodes is not only a good news for the fans but also for the cast. Josh Dallas (Ben Stone), J.R.Ramirez (Jared) and Luna Blaise (Olive Stone) took to Twitter to share the news with their fans and followers. They were immediately cheered on by fans who have been waiting to know how the show will reach its conclusion about the mysterious Flight 828. 

However, it can be only be hoped that 'Manifest' does not end up on the losing end of the line as its predecessor ABC's 'Lost' had done. Following the show's rating writer Damien Lindelof was given the order for additional episodes, and soon after the third Season, the show seemed to run out of things to tell. Finally, ABC brought down the usual season extension of 22 episodes to 18 episodes. According to the requirements of broadcast networks, a show can have a full season if it consists of 22 episodes, but in the case of cable networks, due to minimum ads and the requirement for a strong storyline, the norm has been kept limited to 13 episodes. 

'Manifest' inaugural season does extend up to 16 episodes following NBC's order. However, it still does not qualify as a show with a "full-season" in hand. While Season 1 was supposed to have ended by Christmas Eve this year, the extension in the number of episodes will probably stretch the show up to 2019. Hopefully, the show will be ordered for more episodes so that it can complete one entire season and move on to the other. 'Manifest' returns to NBC on October 22 at 10 p.m.