Vision
Founded in 2004 by Bruno Wyndaele and Jes Van Gaever, De Filistijnen creates original television formats, documentaries and audio productions for the Belgian and international market.
Over the past two decades, the company has built a strong reputation with signature successes such as Best Friends, Bounty Hunters and the internationally acclaimed Eternal Glory - all developed by its in-house creative team.
Our ambition is to combine the highest creative standards with broad audience appeal. Most of our productions have at one point or another, broken through the mythical barrier of one million viewers in a market of just six million inhabitants.
Working from a small market has shaped the way we create: from the very beginning, we have developed our shows with an international mindset, building concepts that are emotionally universal, editorially distinctive, and able to travel beyond borders.
Today, De Filistijnen continues to develop and produce innovative stories across television, radio and podcasts, always driven by a passion for strong ideas and meaningful storytelling.
History
Founded in 2004 by Bruno Wyndaele and Jes Van Gaever, De Filistijnen has been creating original, innovative television for over two decades. From large-scale entertainment formats to documentaries and audio storytelling, the company is driven by a passion for strong concepts, editorial craftsmanship, and stories that connect with audiences.
The company’s first productions quickly established De Filistijnen as a leading creative force in Belgian television. Early successes such as The Newest Quiz (De Nieuwste Quiz) and Friend or Foe (Vriend of Vijand) laid the foundation, but it was Best Friends (Beste Vrienden) that marked the company’s first major breakthrough. The show became the first weekday program on Belgian public broadcaster Eén to surpass one million viewers, establishing De Filistijnen as a trusted creator of popular, intelligent entertainment. It got an adaption in The Netherlands.
A second defining success followed in 2008 with Bounty Hunters (De Premiejagers), a daily quiz show that quickly became one of the strongest pillars of Belgian television. With market shares regularly exceeding 50% and audiences reaching 1.3 million viewers, the show became a true audience favorite and remained on air for seven successful seasons, confirming De Filistijnen’s reputation for creating entertainment formats with broad and lasting appeal.
Also in 2008, De Filistijnen created what would become its international flagship: Eternal Glory (Eeuwige Roem), an ambitious competition series in which former elite athletes battle for one final title. The format immediately stood out for its cinematic production quality and emotional storytelling, attracting international attention from its very first launch.
What followed was the beginning of a remarkable international journey. Eternal Glory has since aired successfully in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Poland, with new territories continuing to explore the format. In several countries, the show has become a returning fixture, evolving into new seasonal editions and spin-offs, while De Filistijnen remains closely involved in safeguarding and developing the format internationally.
In the wake of Eternal Glory’s international expansion, the founders also established Primitives, a dedicated TV format distribution company. What began as a natural extension of their own format work has since grown into one of the leading independent distributors in the international television market, representing a carefully curated catalogue of distinctive entertainment formats.
Alongside its quiz and competition formats, De Filistijnen also expanded into entertainment and magazine programming with The Monday Show (De Maandagshow), a celebrity and current affairs format that added another dimension to the company’s creative portfolio.
the launch of The Club (De Club), a new daily quiz format brought a fresh perspective to the genre, with a female host and a strong female presence among the contestants. The show became especially popular with female audiences and further demonstrated De Filistijnen’s ability to reinvent familiar formats for new viewers.
De Filistijnen has steadily expanded into new creative territories. In 2020, the company produced its first documentary series, Baby Fever (Kinderwens), a personal and relatable exploration of the desire—or choice—not to have children.
Since then, documentary storytelling has become an important pillar of the company’s work, with productions such as The Coroner (Wetsdokters, 2023) and The Eye of the Needle (Door het oog van de Naald, 2024), both produced for Belgian broadcaster VTM.
Audio storytelling has also become an increasingly important focus. In 2023, De Filistijnen produced a daily news and entertainment program for Belgium’s national radio station Radio 1, further expanding its editorial reach. The company is currently developing Two Girls (Twee Meisjes), a new original podcast project.
Today, De Filistijnen continues to create and develop original formats, documentaries, radio and podcasts, always with the same ambition: to make distinctive, high-quality stories that resonate locally and travel internationally.