The Astrology of the Conan-Leno Showdown
Last Thursday, January 7, 2010, NBC execs met with both Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien for extensive discussions on plans for a schedule shift that would push Leno’s talk show back to the coveted 11:30 late night slot, and knock Conan O’Brien’s The Tonight Show, which he has hosted the show since last June, to sometime past midnight.
Over the past week tension has continued to build, and both funnymen have expressed their frustration with the network through their opening monologue jokes. While NBC purportedly will not come to a final decision until Thursday, January 21st, announcements about the planned reshuffling of the schedule have already been made. Recently O’Brien publicly stated that he would not accept being demoted to a later time slot, hinting that he might look elsewhere if the network carries through its plans.
The revelations came as transiting Mercury was retrograde and headed toward a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn, squared by transiting Saturn in Libra. Curiously, Leno’s new show premiere during the period of the previous Mercury retrograde last September, just as things began to get serious for O’Brien.
Late Night With Conan O’Brien
In 1993 Conan O’Brien was invited to host a new NBC talk show to replace David Letterman, who left the network in a huff after Leno was given the plum job of hosting The Tonight Show instead of him. Late Night With Conan O’Brien made its television debut on September 14, 1993. After a rocky start, the show eventually became a big hit.
Transiting Pluto was square transiting Saturn the night Conan’ show started in 1993, and this was the last time those two planets were in that configuration until the same alignment reoccurred just recently in January 2010, just as O’Brien’s future with NBC appears to be up in the air.
O’Brien was having his Saturn return in Aquarius at the time that his show started, and with Saturn just past conjunct his natal Moon, opposite transiting Venus and the Moon in Leo, this signified his getting a big break on national television as a relative unknown.
Planned well in advance
Having learned its lesson with the David Letterman debacle in the early 90’s, NBC decided to announce well in advance that Conan O’Brien would be replacing Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show on September 27, 2004 – five years ahead of the fact – in the hope that it would prevent competitors from wooing O’Brien away from the network.
O’Brien’s contract was set to expire in January 2006, and since he was rumored to be miffed that NBC had just signed Leno to a five-year extension, the Tonight Show carrot was dangled in front of him to keep his loyalty in check.
Just as it had been when he hosted his debut episode eleven years earlier, transiting Venus in Leo was opposite O’Brien’s natal Moon and Saturn in Aquarius on the day of this announcement in 2004, reflecting the network’s attempts to placate his dissatisfaction with Leno’s recent contract extension.
The Jay Leno Show
The Jay Leno Show had its premiere broadcast on September 14, 2009 at 10:00 local time, by which time O’Brien had already taken over hosting duties on The Tonight Show as of June 1st.
An attempt to bring the existing late night talk show format into an earlier time slot, Jay’s first guest was Jerry Seinfeld, followed later by a humbled Kanye West, who had only just made an ass of himself on the MTV Music Video Awards the previous night.
Transiting Neptune was retrograde and headed for conjunction with Leno’s natal Ascendant in Aquarius, opposite transiting Venus in Leo, which was at the exact same degree it had been when Conan’s show premiered in 1993, and at the time of NBC’s 2004 announcement that Conan would be taking over The Tonight Show.
Transiting Mercury had just gone retrograde in Libra, while the transiting Sun and Saturn were conjunct Leno’s natal Mars retrograde in Virgo, opposite transiting Uranus retrograde and natal Venus in Pisces, signifying both the rebranding of an established TV star in a show that, while purportedly a light comedy show, was given an odd sendoff with the contrite Kanye West.
The Head-Hitting Incident
Less than two weeks after the debut of Leno’s new show, O’Brien was injured when he hit his head against the studio floor while doing a stunt with actress Teri Hatcher during a taping. While that night’s show was canceled, the slow-motion replay of the incident proved to be good comic fodder on later episodes.
“Last thing I remember I was enjoying the play with Mrs. Lincoln, and the next thing I knew I was in bed being served cookies and juice” O’Brien said in a statement issued shortly after the accident occurred.
Two nights earlier, O’Brien had offended Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker with a joke he made about the city on his show, a slight that developed into a full-on feud until no less than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in to end it.
Transiting Mercury retrograde was now past conjunction with transiting Saturn in Virgo, opposite transiting Uranus retrograde and natal Venus in Pisces, a reflection of the unpredictable and hazardous week O’Brien was having.
The New Feud
Transiting Saturn and Pluto are square in January 2010, just as they were when Conan O’Brien first came on the talk show scene in 1993. NBC’s recent announcement came as transiting Mercury retrograde was headed back toward a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn, square by Saturn in Libra, the first time Mercury has been retrograde since last September.
Transiting Saturn is conjunct Leno’s natal South Node in Libra, an indicator of his being drawn back into familiar ground, a place and time he had thrived in for a long time.
Transiting Saturn in Libra is opposite O’Brien’s natal Jupiter in Aries, square Pluto and Mercury retrograde in Capricorn, signifying his less-than-flattering position, and the expectation that he is not happy with the situation or its likely outcome. However, with a transiting Jupiter-Uranus conjunction set to touch his natal Jupiter next June, it seems likely that his fortune is far from sour.
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Great Article Nicky! I just read that its official they have signed a contract with Leno, and that Conan is out! Will be interesting to see if Fox picks him up. It is also rumored that Conan will receive 30 million in a settlement to buy out the rest of his contract.
No kidding: “Transiting Mercury retrograde was now past conjunction with transiting Saturn in Virgo, opposite transiting Uranus retrograde and natal Venus in Pisces, a reflection of the unpredictable and hazardous week O’Brien was having.”