The49th Primetime Emmy Awards were held at thePasadena Civic Auditorium inPasadena, California, in 1997. They were presented in two ceremonies hosted byBryant Gumbel, one on Saturday, September 13 and another on Sunday, September 14. The September 14th ceremony was televised onCBS and presented 27 awards.

Frasier became the first series to winOutstanding Comedy Series four consecutive years, it joinedHill Street Blues which wonOutstanding Drama Series four straight years a decade earlier. For the first time since1979,James Burrows did not receive aDirecting nomination, ending his run at 17 consecutive years. Beginning the following year, Burrows would begin a new streak that lasted another six years. In the drama field perennial nomineeLaw & Order won for itsseventh season, the first time a show had won for this specific season. In winningLaw & Order became the first drama series that did not have serialized story arcs^{[note 1]} sinceHill Street Blues perfected the formula.Law & Order remains the only non-serialized winner since 1981.

For the first time, not only didthe Fox Network winthe Lead Actress, Drama award, withGillian Anderson, forThe X-Files, but hers was also the network's first win in any of the Major Acting categories. (Laurence Fishburne andPeter Boyle won forFox inonly guest performances. The latter of which was forThe X-Files just the year before.)

This ceremony marked the end of a 20-year residency for the Primetime Emmy Awards at thePasadena Civic Auditorium dating back to the29th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1977 ceremony.

This is the most recent year in which the Big Four Networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) took home the top 14 Emmys (Comedy and Drama Series, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress in Comedy and Drama, and Directing and Writing for Comedy and Drama).

The Larry Sanders Show had 16 nominations and zero wins, tying the record withNorthern Exposure in1993 and becoming the first (and only to date) comedy series to set the record. These records would later be broken byMad Men in2012 with 17 nominations and without a single win andThe Handmaid's Tale in2021 with 21 nominations and without a single win.

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Notes

• Emmys.com list of 1997 Nominees & Winners
• 49th Primetime Emmy Awards atIMDb

• Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies
• 1997 television awards
• 1997 in California
• Organized events in Pasadena, California
• September 1997 in the United States
• 20th century in Pasadena, California

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata