Sebastian Maniscalco’s SiriusXM channel is hurting up-and-coming talent, comics say

EntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Entertainment

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Tech

Maniscalco’s channel replaced SiriusXM’s Raw Comedy, which highlighted a wider pool of more than 800 comics.

Maniscalco’s channel replaced SiriusXM’s Raw Comedy, which highlighted a wider pool of more than 800 comics.

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

If you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is facing backlash from fellow comics who claim his takeover of SiriusXM’s Raw Comedy channel is harming up-and-coming talent, as reported earlier by Deadline. Many established comics, including Patton Oswalt and Margaret Cho, have posted videos online calling on Maniscalco to carry on Raw Comedy’s legacy by highlighting newer comedians on his channel, instead of mostly focusing on well-known ones.

SiriusXM launched Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio in April, which is “curated and headlined by Sebastian himself,” according to the satellite radio provider. The move replaced SiriusXM’s long-running Raw Comedy channel featuring uncensored stand-up comedy shows from a range of talent. Now, the channel airs Maniscalco’s own show, alongside a stream of stand-up content that comedian Dan Soder says features “very famous comics who are dead or who don’t necessarily need the money.”

The widespread criticism comes as Stand Up for Standup, a nonprofit organization that provides resources for comedians in need, published a report about the channel’s shift away from emerging talent, who rely not only on the visibility they receive from appearing on the station, but also on the royalties they earn from SiriusXM. The organization says that since March, the spins on Maniscalco’s channels have decreased from a wider net of more than 800 comics to a much narrower pool of 275 artists, largely skewed toward celebrities.

“We believe this shift, both in the overall quantity of artists enjoying plays on Channel 102, and the change in distribution across all spin-getters favoring the top few, is bad for comedians, and bad for the future of comedy,” Stand Up for Standup says.