SiriusXM Reaffirms Comic Support, Distances Maniscalco From Raw Dog Call

EXCLUSIVE: SiriusXM has reframed its statement on the viral Raw Dog Comedy debacle amid ongoing fallout with comics online.

A spokesperson tells Deadline in an exclusive statement, “SiriusXM has proudly supported the comedy community, and we have been listening to comedians speak out this week. Our decision to end Raw Comedy was due to the channel’s underperformance and came prior to Sebastian joining the SiriusXM lineup. While the challenges facing working comedians are bigger than any one person or decision, we remain committed, as we have for more than two decades, to making SiriusXM and Sebastian Maniscalco‘s Comedy Radio a place where comedians at every stage of their careers can be heard.”

What steps SiriusXM will take to address the issue called to their attention by legions of working- and middle-class comics is not yet clear.

Interestingly, while discourse surrounding SiriusXM caught fire across social platforms earlier this week, it concerns a decision announced by the satellite radio provider all the way back in April.

We had the scoop, which was that SiriusXM would be replacing Raw Dog Comedy — a long-running channel on its subscription service — with the 24/7 branded channel Sebastian Maniscalco’s Comedy Radio.

As subsequently argued by many, including nonprofit Stand Up for Stand Up, this evolution of SiriusXM’s comedy programming had quietly taken away a reliable source of revenue for many of the comics who need it most. Whereas Raw Dog had given airtime, culminating in residuals, to a broad base of stand-ups, what’s happened at the new channel is a concentration of airplay among the industry’s upper echelon of comics — living and dead — which has boxed out many others.

Calling SiriusXM’s move “devastating,” comedian Liz Miele said, “Because of this action, hundreds of comedians will no longer be able to have these royalties. Working class comedians, people that only make money on the road, that have no safety net, that depend on this money to just survive, are going from having that money to nothing.”

Perhaps, she argued, Maniscalco had previously been unaware of the impact of the rebrand on the broader comedy community. “But now you know, and you can help us. You can fix this. We would love to be reincorporated into the channel and start getting the streams and plays that we were getting before you took it over.”

SiriusXM’s statement reflects their perspective that Maniscalco is catching shrapnel in this situation that was not of his own making, and which he does not deserve. Read our original story on the Raw Dog Comedy debacle here; for SiriusXM’s next moves, stay tuned.