People

Primitives has appointed Simone de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne as its new Managing Director, taking over from Jan Huyse, who has headed the Belgium-headquartered specialist formats distributor since 2018.

Huyse will hand over the company he helped to found to de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne on January 1, 2026. He passes on a thriving operation that is now ranked by TV trends-tracking agency The WIT in the top-10 global format distributors — the first time that an independent distributor has broken into the formats super-league.

As director of sales and acquisitions, de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne has played a pivotal role in Primitives’ strong performance in recent years.

Primitives has enjoyed a stand-out year, driven in part by the success of original Belgian format "99 To Beat", which now ranks alongside global juggernaut "The Traitors" as one of the top-six most-sold formats in the world, according to The WIT. The fast-paced, family-friendly entertainment format, in which 100 contestants compete against each other in a series of brilliantly bonkers challenges, has now been acquired by 12 broadcasters, including FOX in the US and Atresmedia in Spain.

Jan Huyse said: “Primitives started as small vehicle to help three Belgian independent producers distribute their formats to the wider world. Seeing it develop into a solid player in the formats market is one of the great professional pleasures of my long career in the business. I want to thank our rights-holders and clients for their trust, our shareholders for giving us a free rein in terms of plans and ambitions — and, of course, the great staff that made it all happen. Special thanks go out to Siobhan Crawford for daring to be bold and opening up our limited Belgian point of view. Finally, I could not be happier that Simone is taking over the baton. Her excellent work as sales and acquisitions director has helped make this little Belgian company the number-one independent distributor in the world. And I’m convinced there’s a lot more to come.”

Simone de Pruyssenaere de la Woestyne added: “Primitives has achieved the rare feat of sustaining growth, revenue and relevance in a volatile global market. The past year has been one of our strongest yet, with formats including '99 To Beat', 'Zero Stars' and 'The Ultimate Celebrity Car Park Showdown' picking up real momentum internationally. We seem to have hit a sweet spot between scale, quality and originality — plus we can draw on Belgium’s well-deserved reputation for creative risk-taking and quirky storytelling. I’m looking forward to continuing to build on this success with our brilliant team, strong creative partners and formats that deserve the spotlight.”