The 48th Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. The awards were presented over two ceremonies, one untelevised on September 7, 1996, and other televised on September 8, 1996. It was hosted by Michael J. Fox, Paul Reiser, and Oprah Winfrey. Two networks, A&E and AMC, received their first major nominations this year. The televised ceremony presented 27 awards.

Frasier took home Outstanding Comedy Series for the third straight year, and won two major awards overall. In the drama field, ER came into the ceremony as the most nominated drama for the second straight year with ten major nominations; it defeated defending champion NYPD Blue to win Outstanding Drama Series. This turned out to be the only major award ER won. No show won more than two major awards.

The HBO comedy The Larry Sanders Show made Emmy history when it became the first show outside the Big Three television networks to receive the most major nominations (10). Furthermore, Rip Torn won the Supporting Comedy actor award, the first for HBO.

Another first came with Amanda Plummer for Showtime's The Outer Limits. Not only was it the first time a cable network won in her category (Guest Actress, Drama) but was Showtime's first ever Acting Emmy win.

For the twelfth and final season of Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury was once again nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, she had been nominated for every season of the show, but she was defeated once again. In the process she set records for being the most nominated actress in the category (18), as well as the most nominated actress without winning. Both of these records still stand.

Winners and nominees

Programs

Frasier (NBC) Friends (NBC) The Larry Sanders Show (HBO) Mad About You (NBC) Seinfeld (NBC) ER (NBC) Chicago Hope (CBS) Law & Order (NBC) NYPD Blue (ABC) The X-Files (Fox) Dennis Miller Live (HBO) Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) Muppets Tonight (ABC) Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (Comedy Central) The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (CBS) The 68th Annual Academy Awards (ABC) The Best of Tracey Takes On... (HBO) Dennis Miller: Citizen Arcane (HBO) Sinatra: 80 Years My Way (ABC) Truman (HBO) Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story (Lifetime) The Heidi Chronicles (TNT) The Late Shift (HBO) The Tuskegee Airmen (HBO) Gulliver's Travels (NBC) Andersonville (TNT) Hiroshima (Showtime) Moses (TNT) Pride and Prejudice (A&E)

Acting

Lead performances

John Lithgow as Dr. Dick Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun (NBC) (Episode: "Dick Smoker") Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane in Frasier (NBC) (Episode: "You Can Go Home Again") Paul Reiser as Paul Buchman in Mad About You (NBC) (Episode: "Dream Weaver") Jerry Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld in Seinfeld (NBC) (Episode: "The Gum") Garry Shandling as Larry Sanders in The Larry Sanders Show (HBO) Helen Hunt as Jamie Buchman in Mad About You (NBC) (Episode: "The Finale") Ellen DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan in Ellen (ABC) (Episode: "Witness") Fran Drescher as Fran Fine in The Nanny (CBS) (Episode: "The Hockey Show") Patricia Richardson as Jill Taylor in Home Improvement (ABC) (Episode: "The Longest Day") Cybill Shepherd as Cybill Sheridan in Cybill (CBS) (Episode: "When You're Hot, You're Hot") Dennis Franz as Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue (ABC) (Episode: "Closing Time") Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life on the Street (NBC) (Episode: "For God and Country") George Clooney as Dr. Doug Ross in ER (NBC) (Episode: "Hell and High Water") Anthony Edwards as Dr. Mark Greene in ER (NBC) (Episode: "A Shift in the Night") Jimmy Smits as Bobby Simone in NYPD Blue (ABC) (Episode: "A Death in the Family") Kathy Baker as Jill Brock in Picket Fences (CBS) (Episode: "Bottled") Gillian Anderson as Dr. Dana Scully in The X-Files (Fox) (Episode: "Piper Maru") Christine Lahti as Dr. Kate Austin in Chicago Hope (CBS) (Episode: "Transplanted Affection") Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote (CBS) (Episode: "Death by Demographics") Sherry Stringfield as Dr. Susan Lewis in ER (NBC) (Episode: "Take These Broken Wings") Alan Rickman as Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (HBO) Alec Baldwin as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (CBS) Beau Bridges as President Richard Nixon in Kissinger and Nixon (TNT) Laurence Fishburne as Hannibal Lee in The Tuskegee Airmen (HBO) Gary Sinise as President Harry S. Truman in Truman (HBO) Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect IV: Scent of Darkness (PBS) Ashley Judd as Norma Jean Dougherty in Norma Jean & Marilyn (HBO) Jessica Lange as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (CBS) Mira Sorvino as Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean & Marilyn (HBO) Sela Ward as Jessica Savitch in Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story (Lifetime) Tony Bennett – Tony Bennett Live By Request: A Valentine Special (A&E) Ellen DeGeneres – The 38th Annual Grammy Awards (CBS) Whoopi Goldberg – The 68th Annual Academy Awards (ABC) Tracey Ullman – The Best of Tracey Takes On... (HBO) Robin Williams – Comic Relief VII (HBO)

Supporting performances

Rip Torn as Arthur in The Larry Sanders Show (HBO) (Episodes: "Arthur After Hours" + "The P.A.") Jason Alexander as George Costanza in Seinfeld (NBC) (Episodes: "The Pool Guy" + "The Invitations") David Hyde Pierce as Dr. Niles Crane in Frasier (NBC) (Episodes: "The Last Time I Saw Maris" + "Moon Dance") Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld (NBC) (Episodes: "The Pool Guy" + "The Wait Out") Jeffrey Tambor as Hank Kingsley in The Larry Sanders Show (HBO) (Episodes: "Hank's New Assistant" + "Nothing Personal") Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine Benes in Seinfeld (NBC) (Episodes: "The Soup Nazi" + "The Wait Out") Christine Baranski as Maryann Thorpe in Cybill (CBS) (Episodes: "A Who's Who for What's His Name" + "Wedding Bell Blues") Janeane Garofalo as Paula in The Larry Sanders Show (HBO) (Episodes: "Conflict of Interest" + "I Was a Teenage Lesbian") Jayne Meadows as Alice Morgan-DuPont-Sutting-Cushing-Ferruke in High Society (CBS) (Episodes: "Family Val's" + "Alice Doesn't Pump Here Anymore") Renée Taylor as Sylvia Fine in The Nanny (CBS) (Episodes: "Where's the Pearls?" + "The Cantor Show") Ray Walston as Henry Bone in Picket Fences (CBS) (Episodes: "Witness for the Prosecution" + "My Romance") Héctor Elizondo as Dr. Phillip Watters in Chicago Hope (CBS) (Episodes: "A Coupla Stiffs" + "Sweet Surrender") James McDaniel as Arthur Fancy in NYPD Blue (ABC) (Episodes: "The Backboard Jungle" + "Cold Heaters") Stanley Tucci as Richard Cross in Murder One (ABC) (Episodes: "Chapter One" + "Chapter Twenty") Noah Wyle as Dr. John Carter in ER (NBC) (Episodes: "The Right Thing" + "John Carter, M.D.") Tyne Daly as Alice Henderson in Christy (CBS) (Episodes: "Echoes" + The Road Home) Barbara Bosson as Miriam Grasso in Murder One (ABC) (Episodes: "Chapter Eighteen" + "Chapter Twenty") Sharon Lawrence as Sylvia Costas in NYPD Blue (ABC) (Episodes: "Auntie Maimed" + "Closing Time") Julianna Margulies as Carol Hathaway in ER (NBC) (Episodes: "Home" + "The Healers") Gail O'Grady as Donna Abandando in NYPD Blue (ABC) (Episodes: "Auntie Maimed" + "A Death in the Family") Tom Hulce as Peter Patrone in The Heidi Chronicles (TNT) Andre Braugher as Benjamin O. Davis in The Tuskegee Airmen (HBO) John Goodman as Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell in A Streetcar Named Desire (CBS) Ian McKellen as Tsar Nicholas II in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (HBO) Treat Williams as Michael Ovitz in The Late Shift (HBO) Greta Scacchi as Tsarina Alexandra in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (HBO) Kathy Bates as Helen Kushnick in The Late Shift (HBO) Diana Scarwid as Bess Truman in Truman (HBO) Mare Winningham as Sheila in The Boys Next Door (CBS) Alfre Woodard as Queen of Brobdingnag in Gulliver's Travels (NBC)

Directing

Friends (NBC): "The One After the Superbowl" – Michael Lembeck 3rd Rock from the Sun (NBC): "Pilot" – James Burrows The Larry Sanders Show (HBO): "Arthur After Hours" – Todd Holland The Larry Sanders Show (HBO): "I Was a Teenage Lesbian" – Michael Lehmann Seinfeld (NBC): "The Soup Nazi" – Andy Ackerman Chicago Hope (CBS): "Leave of Absence" – Jeremy Kagan ER (NBC): "The Healers" – Mimi Leder ER (NBC): "Hell and High Water" – Christopher Chulack Murder One (ABC): "Chapter One" – Charles Haid NYPD Blue (ABC): "The Backboard Jungle" – Mark Tinker The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (CBS) – Louis J. Horvitz The 68th Annual Academy Awards (ABC) – Jeff Margolis Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) – Jerry Foley Marsalis on Music (PBS): "Sousa to Satchmo" – Michael Lindsay-Hogg The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) – Ellen Brown Andersonville (TNT) – John Frankenheimer Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story (Lifetime) – Peter Werner Gulliver's Travels (NBC) – Charles Sturridge The Heidi Chronicles (TNT) – Paul Bogart The Late Shift (HBO) – Betty Thomas

Writing

Frasier (NBC): "Moon Dance" – Joe Keenan, Christopher Lloyd, Rob Greenberg, Jack Burditt, Chuck Ranberg, Anne Flett-Giordano, Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo The Larry Sanders Show (HBO): "Arthur After Hours" – Peter Tolan The Larry Sanders Show (HBO): "Hank's Sex Tape" – Jon Vitti The Larry Sanders Show (HBO): "Roseanne's Return" – Seinfeld (NBC): "The Soup Nazi" – Spike Feresten The X-Files (Fox): "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" – Darin Morgan ER (NBC): "The Healers" – John Wells ER (NBC): "Hell and High Water" – Neal Baer Murder One (ABC): "Chapter One" – NYPD Blue (ABC): "The Blackboard Jungle" – Dennis Miller Live (HBO) Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC) Late Show with David Letterman Video Special II (CBS) Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (Comedy Central) Tracey Takes On... (HBO) Gulliver's Travels (NBC) – Simon Moore The Late Shift (HBO) – Bill Carter and George Armitage Pride and Prejudice (A&E) – Andrew Davies The Tuskegee Airmen (HBO) – Truman (HBO) – Thomas Rickman

Most major nominations +Networks with multiple major nominations"Major" constitutes the categories listed above: Program, Acting, Directing, and Writing. Does not include the technical categories. Network No. ofNominations NBC 45 HBO 35 CBS 27 ABC 19

+Programs with multiple major nominations Program Category Network No. ofNominations ER Drama NBC10 The Larry Sanders Show Comedy HBO NYPD Blue Drama ABC 8 Seinfeld Comedy NBC 7 The Late Shift Movie HBO 5 Chicago Hope Drama CBS4 Frasier ComedyNBC Gulliver's Travels Miniseries Murder One Drama ABC TrumanMovieHBO The Tuskegee Airmen The 68th Annual Academy Awards Variety ABC3 Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch StoryMovie Lifetime The Heidi Chronicles TNT Mad About You Comedy NBC Rasputin: Dark Servant of DestinyMovie HBO A Streetcar Named Desire CBS The X-Files Drama Fox 3rd Rock from the Sun Comedy NBC2 Andersonville Miniseries TNT The Best of Tracey Takes On... Variety HBO Cybill Comedy CBS Dennis Miller Live Variety HBO Friends Comedy NBC The Kennedy Center HonorsVarietyCBS Late Show with David Letterman The Nanny Comedy Norma Jean & Marilyn Movie HBO Picket Fences Drama CBS Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher Variety Comedy Central Pride and Prejudice Miniseries A&E The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Variety NBC

Most major awards +Networks with multiple major awards Network No. ofAwards NBC 9 CBS6 HBO TNT 2

+Programs with multiple major awards Program Category Network No. ofAwards Dennis Miller Live Variety HBO2 Frasier ComedyNBC Gulliver's Travels Miniseries The Kennedy Center Honors VarietyCBS Picket Fences Drama Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny Movie HBO

Notes

In Memoriam

Martin Balsam Erma Bombeck George Burns John Chancellor Vince Edwards Herb Edelman Ella Fitzgerald Gene Kelly Dean Martin Audrey Meadows Greg Morris David Opatoshu