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.

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.

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