Nick Hewer is leaving The Apprentice

The Apprentice is a divisive show among the entrepreneurs and businesspeople we chat to here at LondonlovesBusiness.com.

Some praise it for attracting a wider audience to business – making entrepreneurialism exciting and generating interest in commercial strategy.

Others castigate it for making business seem unrealistically cut-throat and sensationalised, fearing it will put younger viewers off careers in the professional world.

But love it or loathe it, almost seven million of you tuned in to watch the first episode of the 10^th series in October.

(Although that was down from the peak of 8.1 million viewers for 2009’s opening episode.)

So, many of you will be sorry to hear that Nick Hewer is leaving the show, after acting as an adviser to Lord Sugar on the show from its very first episode.

He told the BBC his decision to leave feels like “relief tinged with regret”.

Hewer tweeted: “So farewell Apprentice – it’s been 10 yrs of fun working on a worthwhile show but now it’s time to file the notebook and throttle back. Bye.”

So farewell Apprentice – it’s been 10 yrs of fun working on a worthwhile show but now it’s time to file the notebook and throttle back. Bye

— Nick Hewer (@Nick_Hewer) December 18, 2014

Lord Sugar tweeted in response to the news: “It’s with a heavy heart I have to say farewell to my good friend Nick Hewer from the apprentice. I thank him sincerely for the past 10 years”.

It’s with a heavy heart I have to say farewell to my good friend Nick Hewer from the apprentice. I thank him sincerely for the past 10 years

— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) December 18, 2014

Hewer is 70 years old. His career with Lord Sugar began in 1983, when he worked on Amstrad, the electronics arm of Lord Sugar’s empire.

He specialises in PR and communications.