's debut as Lord Sugar's new adviser, after Margaret Mountford left the role following the fifth series of
The Apprentice. In March 2008,
Alan Sugar made an announcement that he intended to propose to the BBC of creating a junior version of
The Apprentice owing to its success, with the intention that it would feature children aged between 12–15 and be aired during an early evening timeslot. He later claimed that "nobody took any notice" of his suggestions. A year later, Sugar announced that he had begun negotiations with the BBC in regards to the concept he proposed - this included a focus on the winning team in episodes; a gentler handling of young candidates; the inclusion of his advisers in the spin-off; and airing on
BBC One with a similar format structure to that of the main show, though with no use of the Interviews stage of the contest. Official confirmation that the idea had been green-lighted and production was underway on the spin-off, came in the form of announcement made during an episode of ''
The Apprentice: You're Fired! covering the fifth series of the main show, on 20 May 2009, for applicants for the new show. Part of the announcement revealed that the initial concept for the age group of applicants had changed during negotiation, with it now being focused on those between 16–17 years old, from a variety of social and educational backgrounds, with the announcement inviting potential applicants to visit the official The Apprentice'' website to apply for the spin-off. Sugar remarked that the series, originally announced to be a five-part series, aimed to "promote enterprise amongst young people, as the future of our economy relies on them". In response to this announcement, 28,000 teenagers applied for the show, with ten selected to take part in the competition. After talks about its creation, the show's executive producers were chosen to be Jo Wallace for the BBC, Mark Burnett and C. Scot Cru for Mark Burnett Productions, and Sue Davidson and Michele Kurland for
Talkback Thames. A few months later, Sugar's appointment to be the
Labour Party's
Enterprise Tsar on 5 June 2009, accompanied by a peerage, led to concerns by the BBC over a conflict of interest in regards to the corporation's
political impartiality; while it was decreed that he would continue to appear on
The Apprentice and related programming, following discussions on the matter, it was decided to push back the premiere of the spin-off show, dubbed
Junior Apprentice, along with the sixth series of the main show, until after the
2010 general election on 6 May 2010. In addition to this,
Margaret Mountford's departure from the role of an adviser in
The Apprentice, led to Sugar appointing
Karren Brady as her replacement, with the decision that she would make her debut in the spin-off. On 3 May 2010, the BBC finally announced the premiere date for the show, which began airing its first series on 12 May 2010. After concluding its first series, the BBC announced on 28 August 2010 that it had commissioned a second series of the programme, though this came with a few changes - the number of young candidates was increased to twelve, leading to the number of episodes being increased to eight; and the show's title was changed to
Young Apprentice. The second series began airing from 24 October 2011; during its broadcast, the BBC commissioned a third series and began conducting applications for it. On 30 August 2012, it was reportedly claimed that Lord Sugar had axed the show due to declining ratings and his desire to concentrate on the main show, but Sugar later stated on his Twitter account that these reports were incorrect, yet he could not confirm how long the spin-off had; the third series eventually began airing a few months later, on 1 November 2012. In February 2013, Lord Sugar posted on his Twitter account that the BBC was cancelling the show, after having debated on its future and decided not to renew it for another series. ==Format==