Sebastian Maniscalco is taking heat from fellow comedians over his SiriusXM comedy channel, which critics say has squeezed lots of of working stand-ups out of a profitable source of royalties.
SiriusXM changed 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 comedian.
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.
Host Sebastian Maniscalco visits SiriusXM Studios, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in New York. Getty Images
Stand Up for Stand Up, an advocacy group for comedians, says knowledge provided by XMPlaylist exhibits the quantity of distinct comics receiving spins plunged from 812 in April to 275 in September — a drop of roughly 66% — even as the general quantity of month-to-month performs remained in roughly the same vary.
“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 immediately to Maniscalco, while permitting that the comedian may not have realized the affect 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.”
Sebastian Maniscalco performs onstage during the Sebastian Maniscalco “Stay Hungry” Tour 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019. Getty Images for Sebastian Maniscalco
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 consideration from other comics, including Patton Oswalt, Michelle Wolf and Matthew Broussard.
SiriusXM defended the overhaul, saying it was half 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.
In this picture illustration, a individual holds a smartphone displaying the emblem of Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Getty Images
“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 instructed Deadline that the company considered the rebrand as crucial because the outdated channel was not assembly listenership expectations.
The company has not publicly launched channel-level viewers knowledge, however.
It also stays unclear how much control Maniscalco personally has over particular person picks.
