| Presenter: | Bart Peeters Sofie Van Moll |
| Judges: | Series 1 Axel Enthoven Marc Coucke Els Raemdonck Series 2 Axel Enthoven Saskia Schatteman Guillaume Van der Stighelen |
| Country: | Belgium |
| Language: | Dutch |
| Num Series: | 2 |
| Network: | één |
De bedenkers was a Belgian television show aired on één that pitted inventors against each other for €25,000 in prize money and a chance to release their product into the market.[1] The show ran two series and was presented by Bart Peeters and Sofie Van Moll.[1] The show was financially supported in part by the Flemish government.[1]
Around 2,000 people applied to the show each year and 100 were chosen to participate.[1] There was a wide range of age, with the first series having contestants between 11 and 83 years old.[1] 75 inventors were eliminated in the 6th episode and the remaining 25 were split into 5 groups of 5 to compete in the semi-finals.[1] The inventors were given 6 months to continue developing their project.[1] One finalist from each of the 5 groups (4 in the second series) was chosen by the jury and the audience voted for the winner.[1] This show was similar to Het Beste Idee van Nederland (The Best Idea in the Netherlands).[2]
Axel Enthoven, Marc Coucke, and Els Raemdonck served as the jury.[1]
The five finalists in series 1 were:
In first place was Pierre Van den Broeck's Slip Lift, which helps those with mobility limitations put on underwear.[7] In second place was Els Scheppers, who created a cookie butter made with Speculoos.[8] [7] Lotus approached Scheppers about her creation and by 2009, it had made more than €10,000,000 on the market. Third place went to Stick It which was later distributed by Avdys.[9] Fourth went to Missotten and was produced by Petry; last place was held by Pression-X, which was sold by JBC.[10] [9] Products that did not make it into the top 5 but went to market anyway were another cookie butter, Speculla, by Danny De Maeyer and Dirk De Smet[11] [12] and Place to Pee, a urinal with a built-in gaming console controlled by a urine stream.[13]
Kris Peeters presented the winner with the prize.[3]
The jury in series 2 was made up of Axel Enthoven, Saskia Schatteman, and Guillaume Van der Stighelen.[14] [7]
Four finalists were chosen in the second series:
Sonia Wyllinck, inventor of the paper buddy, a tray that binds paper, was the winner and her product was produced by Euronyl.[17] [7] [18] Runner-up was Michaël Schotte's whiplash prevention headrest and in third was Close2 by Dirk Rosiers, Gaspar Cornette, and Nico Mattan.[7] [17] The patent for Close2 was sold to the Hungarian company UBW.[19] C'Rush by Stefaan Eeckeloo, Floris Provoost, and Tim Verplanken came in fourth.[7]