Four days after the network left Trump’s show off its fall schedule, saying it wanted to see the other networks’ upfront presentations before deciding “Apprentice’s” fate, Trump himself has quit the show.

“Mr. Trump is moving on from ‘The Apprentice’ to a major new TV venture,” according to a statement released on Friday. "It looks like viewers will have to wait to see what Mr. Trump plans for the future."

NBC has not yet commented on Trump’s decision, but if the network thought the show was worth saving, it certainly would have renewed it at last Monday’s upfront.

Trump has continued to claim over the past three years that “Apprentice” was the No. 1 show on television, though the show had been sliding since its first season. It wasn’t even No. 1 in its timeslot when its sixth season ended last month.

“Apprentice” averaged a 3.1 adults 18-49 rating in its final season, less than half of what it averaged during its first season in spring 2004. The first-season finale averaged 28 million total viewers; the April 22 finale drew just 7.98 million.

With NBC in the midst of rebuilding after three down years, it simply wouldn't make sense to return a show whose ratings have fallen nearly every season.

Still, Trump continued to insist that "Apprentice" was the biggest thing on television. He was always a master self-promoter, using nasty public confrontations with Martha Stewart, whose “Apprentice” spinoff lasted just one season, and Rosie O’Donnell to generate attention for his show.

Though Trump said last year at this time that “Apprentice” had been renewed for a seventh season, NBC never confirmed that. Earlier this year, the reality show’s producer, Mark Burnett, told The New York Post that if NBC did not renew the show, he would shop it to other networks.

Trump will actually remain in business with NBC through his beauty pageants, Miss USA and Miss Universe. The real estate mogul recently signed a deal to keep them on NBC for the next three years.

That could be why NBC didn’t dump the show outright earlier this week, giving Trump a chance to salvage his dignity by walking away. NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly was careful to praise Trump while leaving the show’s future open, saying that Trump was an unbelievable talent.

The network is somewhat indebted to Trump for helping to carry it through the lean first year after “Friends” ended, when “Apprentice” was one of its few hits.

On Friday, Trump's PR troops were busy pumping up his next show, whatever it may be, saying in the statement, “If Mr. Trump's past TV success is any indication of the future, then one can anticipate that millions of 'Apprentice' fans will be migrating to his new venture.”

As to what that new venture will be, there’s some speculation that he’s shopping a different reality program to other broadcast networks. But another, more interesting rumor from Mediabistro's TV Newser blog has him readying for a show on Rupert Murdoch’s soon-to-launch Fox News business channel.