The two leading private stations, TV Nova and Prima TV, announced a boycott of the Elsas two days before they aired, questioning their criteria and credibility, but the show's producer, Petr Vachler, aired the awards unapologetically.

Indeed, the Elsas won audiences on Czech TV — with Czech TV's two channels sweeping all but one of the 12 local awards, just as they did in 2004. Czech TV news played up the Elsas the same night, while Nova made no mention of them.

Vachler, who created the Elsas, along with the Czech version of the Oscar, the Cesky´ lev, or Czech Lion, has defended the television award as fair, adding that he tried to involve Nova and Prima in the process.

Nova did score one Elsa, for its investigative news program Na vlastní oci, or Eye Witness. Other non-Czech TV winners included Christian Duguay's Hitler: Rise of Evil, which took best foreign drama, and the BBC's David Attenborough: The Life of Mammals, which scored best foreign documentary.

All other categories, from entertainment and magazine show to original drama, went to Czech TV programs.

The latter was picked up by In Nomine Patris, a feature on the real-life turmoil of Cold War-era Czech priest Josef Toufar, whose congregation believed they witnessed a miracle in his church when a cross moved. The secret police at first tried to explain it away; they then locked up Toufar and tortured him to death in a case that still resonates with many Czechs.

The drama's director, Jaromír Polisensky´, screenwriter Jan Drbohlav, and leading man Viktor Preiss also won Elsas; best actress went to Vilma Cibulková for the period tale Zil jsem s cizinkou, or I Lived With a Stranger, based on the novel by Emil Vachek.

Scandalous or no, the Elsas are clearly doing good business, this year sponsored by Renault in a clever promotional move — Czech TV has been forced to phase out commercials under a recent regulatory ruling but a life-size cardboard cutout of Renault's new Clio stood prominently on stage throughout the awards broadcast.