Maniscalco SiriusXM Channel: Oswalt, Wolf Call for Reversal

Patton Oswalt and Michelle Wolf are asking Sebastian Maniscalco to give back a SiriusXM channel that used to be a payday for up-and-coming comics. The Hollywood Reporter reports that in April, the channel once called Raw Comedy/Raw Dog on Channel 99 became Maniscalco's Comedy Radio.

Oswalt posted to Instagram. He said "But 500 of them have been booted off of Sirius." He also said the comedy world stays dynamic because new voices keep coming up, and those voices depend on the money from Sirius.

Wolf posted as well. She said the channel used to play around 800 comics, and now it's about 300, all famous. She told Maniscalco that "everyone can see that comics, we're together on this."

The advocacy group Stand Up for Standup says comics earned $15 in royalties per spin of their set on the channel. The group also says the channel now rotates a narrower roster each month, with more than 75 percent of plays going to the top 50 artists and bigger celebrity acts.

Maniscalco isn't short on cash. In September 2024, he set four records over five sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, including the highest gross for a single tour stop at $10.7 million, per The Hollywood Reporter.

SiriusXM told THR that the launch of Maniscalco's Comedy Radio introduced a new creative direction and that the company continues to invest in comedians more than any other audio platform.

The numbers make the case. A channel that once paid hundreds of working comics now plays a handful of big names, and the people who lost the checks are the ones who need them. Oswalt and Wolf are right to push. Maniscalco can afford to give it back. The question is whether he wants to.

• Michelle Wolf
• Patton Oswalt
• Raw Dog
• Sebastian Maniscalco
• SiriusXM
• Stand-up comedy