Sebastian Maniscalco is taking heat from fellow comedians over his SiriusXM comedy channel, which critics say has squeezed hundreds of working stand-ups out of a lucrative source of royalties.
SiriusXM replaced its long-running Raw Comedy channel in April with Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio, a 24/7 channel the satellite-radio giant has described as “curated and headlined” by the arena-filling comic.
Now, comedians including Liz Miele and Greg Stone are calling on Maniscalco and SiriusXM to reverse course, arguing the revamped channel has sharply concentrated airplay among better-known performers.
Stand Up for Stand Up, an advocacy group for comedians, says data supplied by XMPlaylist shows the number of distinct comics receiving spins plunged from 812 in April to 275 in September — a drop of roughly 66% — even as the overall number of monthly plays remained in roughly the same range.
“The problem is,” Miele said in an Instagram video, “Raw went from playing 800 working class comedians to now playing less than 300 celebrity comedians like Joan Rivers, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Norm Macdonald.”
Miele said the lost airplay has hit comics who relied on the royalty checks while touring.
“And it is devastating,” she said. “Because of this action, hundreds of comedians will no longer be able to have these royalties.”
Stone also appealed directly to Maniscalco, while allowing that the comic may not have realized the impact of the programming overhaul.
“I’m going to assume you didn’t notice [the effects of the rebrand],” Stone said in a video posted to Instagram.
“’Cause no Italian is going to take money out of the hardworking man’s pocket.”
He urged listeners to call SiriusXM and demand that the company “Bring back Raw Dog,” referring to the predecessor channel’s longtime Raw Dog Comedy branding.
The backlash has also drawn attention from other comics, including Patton Oswalt, Michelle Wolf and Matthew Broussard.
SiriusXM defended the overhaul, saying it was part of a broader programming change.
“SiriusXM works together with our creative partners to program the best possible experience for our listeners,” a company spokesperson said.
“The launch of Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio introduced a new creative direction and a regularly evolving programming mix for the channel, and SiriusXM continues to invest in comedians more than any other audio platform to deliver a wide range of comedy offerings across our channels.”
Sources close to SiriusXM told Deadline that the company viewed the rebrand as necessary because the old channel was not meeting listenership expectations.
The company has not publicly released channel-level audience data, however.
It also remains unclear how much control Maniscalco personally has over individual selections.
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