49th Primetime Emmy Awards

49th Primetime Emmy Awards

The 49th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California in 1997. They were presented in two ceremonies hosted by Bryant Gumbel, one on September 13 and another on September 14. The September 14th ceremony was televised on CBS.

Frasier became the first series to win Outstanding Comedy Series four consecutive years, it joined Hill Street Blues which won Outstanding Drama Series four straight years a decade earlier. In the drama field perennial nominee Law & Order won for its seventh season. In winning Law & Order became the first drama series that did not have serialized story arcs since Hill Street Blues perfected the formula. Law & Order remains the only non-serialized winner since 1981.

Ratings champion ER also made Emmy history on the night, but not in the way it had hoped. ER came into the ceremony with 17 major nominations, the most on the night and, at that point, second most ever for a comedy or drama series. Unfortunately, the series never heard its name called, going 0/17 in major categories, smashing the record for largest shutout in major categories set by Northern Exposure in 1993, which went 0/11. Fortunately for ER, it did win 3 Creative Arts awards to bring its total output to 3/21, this meant that Northern Exposure still held the title for worst total shutout with an 0/16 tally.