> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.layeredentertainment.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Comics Are Losing Their SiriusXM Checks. Here’s What Sebastian Maniscalco and SiriusXM Are Saying - URL: https://www.layeredentertainment.com/sebastian-maniscalco-siriusxm-comics-royalties/ - Published: 2026-10-10T17:17:51.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-10T17:17:51.000Z - Description: Comics have been asking fans to call SiriusXM and ask for Raw Dog to come back. Maniscalco’s answer so far is a request for patience. For the working comics watching their royalty checks shrink, the question is how much patience they can afford. - Author: Alivia Arliss - Tags: Thinking About, sebastian-maniscalco, siriusxm, raw-comedy, stand-up-comedy, Comedy, liz-miele, patton-oswalt, comedy-radio If you are a fan of comedy, you have no doubt heard by now about Sebastian Maniscalco and the SiriusXM situation. On April 20, SiriusXM Channel 99 became Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio, a 24/7 station he curates and headlines. It replaced SiriusXM Raw Comedy, also known as Raw Dog.¹ A lot of working comics are not happy about it. One thing to clear up early: Maniscalco did not buy the station, even though some comics have said so. He signed a multiyear agreement with SiriusXM to host a podcast and radio show that became the flagship of the channel.² Patton Oswalt, for example, told Maniscalco in a video that he bought the channel,³ and that framing spread. Reporting on the deal describes a hosting agreement, not a purchase. --- **What Raw Dog was** Raw Comedy was a “jukebox channel” that rotated sets from comics and had no host.⁴ It was a small corner of satellite radio where up-and-coming comedians could launch their careers and make a little money doing it.³ Maniscalco’s channel is curated and headlined by him and features mostly mainstream, well-known talent.⁴ Here are the numbers. Data from XMPlaylist reportedly shows the number of comics getting airtime fell from 812 in April to 275 in September.⁵ The advocacy group Stand Up for Stand Up says over 75% of monthly plays now go to the top fifty artists.⁶ Oswalt says 500 comics were cut.³ However you count it, we are talking about hundreds of people. Who is left? Michelle Wolf pointed out that the comics still on the channel are ones most of us already know.³ Vulture reported that the most-played comics now include Jim Gaffigan, Kevin Hart and Ricky Gervais, while Raw Comedy regulars like Jim Florentine, Liz Miele and Ian Edwards are no longer featured.⁷ Miele names Joan Rivers, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope and Norm Macdonald as the kind of acts now filling the airtime, along with famous living comics who may not even know about the extra income coming their way.⁸ Many of these are top comics who do not need the money. --- **Why the money matters** Comics who have spoken out say each spin pays about $15.⁷ That sounds small until you remember how many working comics live on passive income between road gigs. Marc Maron called SiriusXM one of the steadiest income streams a comic has.¹ Another comic described it as the passive income that keeps you afloat in the lean years.¹ I don’t have play counts for any one comic, so I can’t tell you what a single person lost. But I am curious how big the financial impact really is, and that is a question I’d love to see answered. --- **The comic who got everyone posting** If you scrolled social media this week and saw comic after comic posting about SiriusXM, you can thank Liz Miele. One essay on the situation credits her with organizing the coordinated posting effort,⁹ and the Daily Beast reports she teamed up with comics like Matthew Broussard to push for the cut comics to be brought back.¹ This is personal for her. Raw Comedy played her albums for over a decade.¹ She told the essay’s author that her payout checks were half their usual size this month and will be zero next month.⁹ She is a comic of 24 years and says she will be fine, but will have to go back to living gig to gig.¹⁰ Her focus is on the comics with less cushion: hundreds of working-class comedians who only make money on the road and have no safety net.¹⁰ The essay also says the posting storm followed failed negotiations between a group of independent comedy record labels and SiriusXM, and attempts to reach Maniscalco’s team privately.⁹ --- **Who else is speaking out** Of course my guy Jokewrld beat me to the punch and made a video on October 6 compiling a ton of these videos into one short clip, and it made me realize how huge this is. Patton Oswalt, Michelle Wolf, Margaret Cho and Matthew Broussard have all weighed in publicly,⁷ along with Kyle Kinane¹¹ and Dan Soder, who called on Maniscalco to push for change.¹² Oswalt’s message was direct: young comics keep this profession dynamic, and the decision can be reversed.³ --- **Maniscalco responds** Maniscalco posted a video on Instagram Stories addressed to his fellow comedians.⁴ In it, he says he hears them, supports them and knows how hard the grind is. He says he had nothing to do with removing Raw Comedy from SiriusXM, calling it “a SiriusXM decision.”¹³ He then says he will work with SiriusXM to highlight a variety of voices, from emerging to established, and asks for a little time because he just got there and needs to build out the channel.¹³ SiriusXM issued its own statement on Thursday, October 8\. The company says its decision to end Raw Comedy came down to the channel’s underperformance and came before Maniscalco joined its lineup.⁴ It adds that the challenges facing working comedians are bigger than any one person or decision, and says it remains committed to being a place where comedians at every stage can be heard.¹² That follows an earlier SiriusXM statement that the launch brought a new creative direction and a regularly evolving programming mix.¹⁴ Sources close to the company told Deadline it views the comics’ concerns as legitimate.⁷ Some people online are defending him. Fox News quotes commenters on X saying SiriusXM did this, not Maniscalco, and that comics are treating him like a program director.¹⁵ Pajiba’s take was similar: he probably licensed his name and has little to do with which comics make the rotation.¹⁶ --- **The questions nobody has answered** Here is what I could not find in any reporting. Maniscalco promises to highlight more voices but gives no timeline and does not mention royalties. SiriusXM says Raw Comedy’s end predated him, yet his channel is the one that replaced it. And nobody has said who actually decides which comics get played on his channel. SiriusXM also points to its other comedy channels as places comics can be heard, and whether plays there pay the same is still open. --- **The audience problem** As someone who does not listen to radio, I can still see where this causes a problem. There are so many comics people would know nothing about if their sets weren’t playing on SiriusXM. I think about the older listeners still tuning in on their drive to work. That is where a lot of people stumble onto a new favorite, and a lineup of mostly famous names takes that discovery away. --- Comics have been asking fans to call SiriusXM and ask for Raw Dog to come back.⁷ Maniscalco’s answer so far is a request for patience. For the working comics watching their royalty checks shrink, the question is how much patience they can afford. --- **References** ¹ The Daily Beast, “Sebastian Maniscalco’s Shocking Move Draws Major Backlash From Comics” ² Inside Radio, “Sebastian Maniscalco expands comedy empire to SiriusXM” ³ The Hollywood Reporter, “Patton Oswalt, Michelle Wolf Call on Sebastian Maniscalco to Reverse SiriusXM Channel Takeover” ⁴ The Hollywood Reporter, “Sebastian Maniscalco Distances Himself From SiriusXM’s Raw Comedy Cancellation After Outcry” ⁵ Wide Open Country, “Popular Comedian Faces Backlash After SiriusXM Shakeup Cuts Hundreds of Comics From Airwaves” ⁶ Archyde, “Sebastian Maniscalco Faces Backlash From Comedians Over SiriusXM Channel Shake-Up” ⁷ SSBCrack News, “Comics Say Sebastian Maniscalco’s SiriusXM Channel Cut Hundreds of Working Comedians Off the Air and Out of Their Royalty Checks” ⁸ Yahoo Entertainment, “Comedians Call On Sebastian Maniscalco, SiriusXM To Restore Working-Class Comic Airplay Following Raw Dog Rebrand” ⁹ Yahoo Entertainment, “Essay: Comedy’s middle class is getting squeezed out” ¹⁰ The Observational Comedy (Substack), “You’re losing the crowd” by Isabelle Lichtenstein ¹¹ Wilson’s Media, “Sebastian Maniscalco’s SiriusXM channel is hurting up-and-coming talent, comics say” ¹² Yahoo Entertainment, “Sebastian Maniscalco Responds to Backlash After SiriusXM Comedy Deal: ‘Give Me a Little Time’” ¹³ TMZ, “Sebastian Maniscalco Denies Role in SiriusXM Canceling Raw Comedy” ¹⁴ TMZ, “Sebastian Maniscalco Defended By SiriusXM Amid Backlash” ¹⁵ Fox News, “Comedy stars lash out at Sebastian Maniscalco over SiriusXM shake-up” ¹⁶ Pajiba, “What’s the Sebastian Maniscalco Controversy All About?”