Japlish. Check out the ad for Toyota in on page six of yesterday’s Australian, celebrating the notable achievement of a Toyota Camry winning a NASCAR race. Read the copy! It could not have been written by a person who speaks English as a native language. Hilarious! — Crikey reader Jim Carden

Seven heaven for Sydney news. For the fourth night in a row the Seven Sydney’s 6pm News last night beat Nine News by more than 100,000 viewers. In fact it was over 160,000 – 421,000 to 254,000. The night before it was 403,000 to 246,000, Tuesday it was 448,000 to 332,000 and on the holiday Monday it was 435,000 to 320,000. It is understood to be the first time Seven has had such a large margin over Nine News in Sydney four nights in a row outside of Olympics. Last night’s winning margin of 167,000 is thought to be the biggest margin for Seven over Nine news in Sydney. Seven News at the moment is getting the sort of dominance over Nine in Sydney that it usually has in Perth. It’s why Seven beat Nine nationally by 293,000 viewers. Nine’s weakness in Sydney matters as the market accounts for some 37% of metro market advertising and the news and current affair hour from 6pm to 7pm is among the most expensive for advertisers. It’s why Nine has commissioned a series of the old Seven game show Wheel of Fortune, with former Seven star, Tim Campbell. — Glenn Dyer

Throwing Gladiators to the lions. According to its rivals, the Seven Network has heavy bookings from Sunday onwards for its prime time programming, with Gladiators, the new 6.30pm Sunday show, the prime target. In fact Gladiators isn’t new, its returning with a new cast and a very expensive budget. According to some industry sources the program could cost $800,000 an episode. Seven says its not that much and it will make a profit but talk around the industry is that Seven has had long shoots, lots and lots of production and editing facilities tied up making it. Its big, bold and very costly and Seven insisted on rushing it into production earlier this year when the US writers’ strike looked like continuing. — Glenn Dyer

RIP, Egg McMuffin man: Herb Peterson, the man credited with inventing the Egg McMuffin has died. He was 89. Peterson started out as an ad exec at McDonald’s agency, D’Arcy Advertising (later D’Arcy-McManus & Masius), in Chicago. He wrote McDonald’s first national advertising slogan, “Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.” — 5 blogs before lunch

Shakur tale has holes in it: Last week’s bombshell Los Angeles Times report claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports, The Smoking Gun has learned. — thesmokinggun.com

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: Seven News was tops with 421,000, from Home and Away on Seven at 7pm with 1.290 million, Today Tonight, 3rd, with 1.289 million. Nine’s swimming trials from 7.30pm to around 8.30pm was 4th with 1.167 million. Nine News was 5th with 1.167 million and The Biggest Loser averaged 1.122 million at 7pm to 8pm on Ten. A Current Affair was 7th with 1.110 million and the Footy Shows were 8th with a combined total of 1.091 million. Seven’s hour of How I Met Your Mother averaged 1.090 million and Ten’s repeat of Law And Order SVU at 8.30pm averaged 1.079 million. 11th was Nine’s one off Kiwi surf special, Deadly Surf with 1.067 million and The 7pm ABC News was 12th with 1.067 million viewers on average.

The Losers: Losers? Saving Kids on Ten, 751,000, Medium, also on Ten 748,000. Nine viewers at 7.30pm with repeats of Two And A half Men, 917,000. That’ was 4th, beaten by Seven, Ten and the ABC.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. Today Tonight won nationally but lost Melbourne and Brisbane. The 7pm ABC News in Sydney averaged 287,000 viewers and beat Nine News in the rankings. The 7.30 Report averaged 812,000, Lateline, 286,000, Lateline Business, 149,000. Nine’s Nightline averaged 529,000. Ten News At Five averaged 800,000 and the Late News/Sports Tonight averaged 382,000. World News Australia on SBS averaged 170,000, at 6.30pm and 159,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise averaged 398,000, 7am Today, 287,000.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 30.0% (26.9% a week ago) from Seven, 27.1% (29.4%), Ten with 21.6% (22.15%), the ABC with 16.7% (15.7%), and SBS with 4.6% (4.9%). Nine won Melbourne, and Brisbane, Seven won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week, 29.0% to 26.0% for Nine and 23.4% for Ten. In regional areas a win to WIN/NBN with 31.1% from Prime/7Qld with 25.6%, Southern Cross (22.4%), the ABC on 16.6% and SBS, 4.6%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A competitive night with the AFL Footy Show in Melbourne proving the difference and the NRL program in Sydney and Brisbane again fading and finishing well out of the top ten lists in both markets. The AFL Footy Show in Melbourne had the biggest audience in any market last night of 487,000. It’s why Nine did so well last night and won Melbourne by 10 points. Tonight Seven moves further in front with the AFL to rate more highly than the NRL and tomorrow night it’s the battle of the movies, with AFL on Ten in Southern markets. The ABC screens East of Everything at 8.30pm with a Seachange hype because of the presence of Deb Cox. It doesn’t have Diver Dan or Siggie Thornton. It would be worth a watch but don’t expect a Seachange type program. It will probably end up a Rainshadow sort of program, promising much and not quite delivering.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.