Manifest gets back three ordered: Why not a full season order?

NBC has ordered three more episodes of Manifest, taking the total of Season 1 episodes to 16. Why not give it a full season order?

Manifest has been NBC’s most successful Monday night show in the last handful of years. While ratings slipped from the pilot, they’ve remained relatively steady, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that NBC has ordered more episodes. The surprising decision for some is that only three more episodes were ordered instead of nine.

When a network orders extra episodes, they will often order enough to create a 22-episode first season. NBC has opted for a 16-episode first season instead for the LOST-style show. Why would it do this?

It’s not likely the ratings. Networks see dips in the ratings after the first episode. People check out the pilot just to see what the show is like. New Amsterdam took a dip, but NBC still ordered a full season. So why only three more episodes?

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According to TVLine, the three extra is to do with storytelling. NBC has the goal to air all-new episodes every week in 2019. It doesn’t want repeats, which happens when too many extra episodes are ordered. After all, the writers need time to create the episodes and then the show needs time to film and go through post-production.

More shows, especially on NBC, are getting less than 22 episodes. The Good Place has 13, while This Is Us, which is NBC’s biggest show on the network, has 18 episodes. Getting less than 22 isn’t considered a bad thing.

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MANIFEST — “Pilot” — Photo by: David Giesbrecht/NBC/Warner Brothers — Acquired via NBC Media Village /

And I’d agree with NBC’s decision. I don’t need 22-episode seasons. More shows are looking at 13-18 episodes and count that as a full season. Supernatural reduced its episode order to 20 this year and I praised the decision. I love that American Horror Story does 10-12 episodes, depending on the season.

Shorter episode orders allow the storyline to remain focused. There’s no need to add in filler episodes to space out the content. Some of my favorite shows are the spring/midseason shows because they’re on-point with the storyline. They don’t have the extra episodes to twiddle their thumbs and figure out.

A storyline like Manifest needs to remain focused. Look at LOST, which had episodes that had a lot of flashbacks but little substance. Those episodes could have been combined and reduced, but networks didn’t look at shows like that at the time. NBC can do something different with Manifest and I think it’s going to be a good thing.

Next. Manifest: 7 major questions from the series premiere. dark

What do you think about Manifest getting three extra episodes? Would you rather a full season order or is 16 episodes enough? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Manifest airs Mondays at 10/9c on NBC.

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