46th Primetime Emmy Awards

46th Primetime Emmy Awards
46th Primetime Emmy Awards
	Promotional poster
Date	September 11, 1994 ; (Ceremony); September 10, 1994 ; (Creative Arts Awards);
Location	Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, California
Presented by	Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Hosted by	Patricia Richardson ; Ellen DeGeneres
Highlights
Most awards	Frasier (4)
Most nominations	NYPD Blue (17)
Outstanding Comedy Series	Frasier
Outstanding Drama Series	Picket Fences
Outstanding Miniseries	Prime Suspect III
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series	Late Show with David Letterman
Television/radio coverage
Network	ABC

The 46th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 11, 1994. The ceremony was hosted by Patricia Richardson and Ellen DeGeneres. It was broadcast on ABC. Comedy Central received its first major nomination at this ceremony.

For its first season, the Cheers spin-off Frasier won Outstanding Comedy Series and four total major awards. For the second straight year Picket Fences won Outstanding Drama Series, it too won four major awards, but the more impressive drama series was newcomer NYPD Blue, which took home three major awards.

NYPD Blue came into the ceremony with 17 major nominations. This broke Hill Street Blues record for most nominations by a drama or comedy series of 16 set in 1982, and put it in second place all time behind Roots which gained 21 major nominations in 1977. NYPD Blue set another milestone when it received every nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, this marked only the ninth time that a show had received every nomination in a category. This feat has not been accomplished since.

The television film And the Band Played On also made Emmy history. It set a new record when it received nine major nominations, the most ever for a television movie. The record was maintained for twenty years, until The Normal Heart received nine major nominations in 2014. Both films won the top prize, but each lost all six of their acting nominations, directing, and writing to other projects.