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Sebastian Maniscalco has found himself in hot water with some comedians who are claiming that his new SiriusXM channel is taking away money and exposure from working-class comics.
Earlier this year, SiriusXM changed a long-running channel in its lineup called Raw Comedy that often featured lesser-known comedians to Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio. The new station more prominently features famous comedians now.
Stand Up for Stand Up, a nonprofit that supports comedians, recently wrote an article saying that the rebranding has “drastically shifted from a wider pool of 800+ comedians enjoying spins (and thus, royalties and exposure to the audience of listeners)” on the channel “to a narrower pool of comedians getting plays per month. And of those few hundred who are getting spins, over 75% of the plays are going to the top 50 artists, which results in a concentration of wealth among the top echelon, which is largely made up of big-name celebrity comics.”
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Sebastian Maniscalco is facing a backlash over a shake-up at SiriusXM. (Getty Images for Newport Beach TV FEST)
The nonprofit called the change “bad for comedians, and bad for the future of comedy,” adding, “it hurts passive revenue, and discoverability, as well as the infrastructure that supports up and coming comedians.”
Comedian Matt Ruby on his Substack page claimed the channel was “crushing middle class comedians who rely on payments from the company to pad income.”
Liz Miele, another comedian, said in a video on her Instagram: “This year, the Raw channel on SiriusXM became Sebastian Maniscalco’s channel. Great. Fine. Celebrities have taken over channels before. Never been an issue. The problem is 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. Just dead comic, dead comic, dead comic, and then a plethora of very famous alive comedians that might not even know about this extra income that they’re about to receive.”
She added that every “working-class comedian that has been kicked off the channel is quite aware” of the money they’ve lost.
Sebastian Maniscalco is seen performing onstage at Ryman Auditorium. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for “Nobody Does This Tour”)
Comedian Gianmarco Soresi posted a photo of Maniscalco on X with the caption, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”
Comedian Ashley Ray, who relied on the income, wrote on X, “Those checks went from covering a car payment to barely covering a quarter of weed, i hate this man.”
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Famous names like Patton Oswalt, Michelle Wolf, and Margaret Cho also implored Maniscalco to do something this week.
“I know you didn’t mean to do anything bad by doing it. You can easily reverse this decision. Get those young comedians back on the Sirius channel,” Oswalt said in a Facebook video. “Let them get those checks.”
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Sebastian Maniscalco took over the Raw Comedy channel on SiriusXM earlier this year. (Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Wolf also pleaded with Maniscalco in a Facebook video, saying, “Comics, we’re together on this. We want it to change.”
“Sebastian, give working comedians a chance,” Cho said in a video on her Facebook.
Others took to social media to defend Maniscalco.
“Sirius radio did this not Sebastian,” one X user wrote. “Jesus Christ the dude is always there for young comics.”
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The comedian also had quite a few defenders. (Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
Another user said, “TBH this likely has little to do with him, his name is just on the channel. Altho I do miss when Raw Dog was actually raw w/some of the edgiest comics.”
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“His reps think this is gonna blow over — and they’re right,” a third added.
“The amount of comedians that think Sebastian Maniscalco is a program director is f—ing sad,” another person wrote on X. “He sold his name to be on the channel hes not deciding who gets played.”
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, SiriusXM said, “SiriusXM works together with our creative partners to program the best possible experience for our listeners. 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.”
The company said in a press release announcing the new channel in April that the channel would be “curated and headlined by Maniscalco.’
Fox News Digital has reached out to Maniscalco for comment.