Yahoo Movies ‘Amazing Race’ Week 4: Holdernesses reach new heights in Switzerland. How’d they do?
Kim and Penn Holderness, part of the Raleigh family known for “Christmas Jammies” and other viral videos, are competing on this season of CBS’s “The Amazing Race,” and The News & Observer is following their journey on the show each week.
After a 19-month pause in filming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, last week’s episode saw the teams reuniting in Switzerland and completing a variety of challenges, including scaling a mountain, making belts and turning flags.
The Holdernesses finished in 2nd place last week, showing their time away from the race didn’t make them any less competitive.
The race is now down to six teams as they remained in Switzerland this week to complete more challenges.
How did the Holdernesses stack up in this episode? Who was eliminated?
Let’s find out in this recap of Week 4 of “The Amazing Race.”
How did the Holderness team place this week?
Kim and Penn were neck-and-neck with a couple of other teams this week, ultimately finishing in 3rd place.
What challenges did teams complete this week?
The race picked up in Altstatten, Switzerland, the location of last week’s pit stop. Host Phil Keoghan announced that for the remainder of the race, teams will leave the pit stop locations in the order they placed in the previous episode.
As last week’s 1st and 2nd place finishers respectively, Ryan and Dusty and Kim and Penn left the pit stop first.
Before leaving, the teams opened their first clue and found instructions for a roadblock challenge that involved bungee jumping from a dam.
The teams got into cars and drove two-and-a-half hours away to the challenge. The Holdernesses and Ryan and Dusty decided to work together to navigate to the dam, then played rock-paper-scissors at the dam to decide which duo would go first for the jumping.
Ryan and Dusty won rock-paper-scissors, allowing them to jump first and leave the challenge in 1st place.
Kim competed for the Holdernesses at this roadblock. Penn completed the roadblock last week, and the duo has previously said on their podcast that their game plan during the race was to alternate which person completed the roadblocks, since only one person from each team can complete those challenges.
This week, the teams were also joined by their travel companions, the Travelocity Gnome. The teams had to keep the gnome with them throughout their challenges. The gnomes even donned harnesses and jumped from the dam with their partners.
Kim was noticeably nervous for the bungee jumping challenge, and received encouragement from Penn who said, “It’s ‘The Amazing Race.’ They won’t let you die.”
Kim successfully completed the jump, with Penn watching from the sidelines and becoming noticeably emotional. The duo, in 2nd place at this point, then opened the next clue, which instructed them to drive to a lakefront town to find another clue.
Kim and Penn stopped for directions on the way, getting help from a stranger who used their phone to help with navigation.
On a dock at the lake, teams found instructions for a detour challenge. For the challenge, teams could choose between delivering chestnuts and wine to a cocktail party up a long flight of stairs, or making sausage.
Kim and Penn found the detour clue in 3rd place, falling slightly behind twins Lulu and Lala. They chose the chestnut and wine challenge, struggling for a moment to find the chestnut vendor before beginning the challenge, but ultimately leaving the detour still in 3rd place.
After completing their detour challenges, the teams searched their gnomes’ satchels for a photo of Parco Ciani, a lakefront park in the Swiss city of Lugano that served as this episode’s pit stop.
Episode highlight from the Holderness duo
Our Holderness highlight this week comes from the bungee jumping challenge.
Kim was clearly nervous about the task, saying she is typically “Safety Susie” around her kids, and that the challenge was out of her comfort zone.
Penn offered her encouragement before she jumped, then enthusiastically cheered for her on the way down. He also got choked up — saying he was so proud of Kim, especially since he knew “how hard that was for her.”
At one point, Penn said through tears that he was “imagining life without her,” showing that the experience was nerve-racking for both of them.
We’ve loved the duo’s vulnerability throughout the race, especially when they’ve talked about their kids being a driving motivation behind joining the race, but this moment was one of the sweetest we’ve seen from them. (And we’re glad they both made it out alive.)
How did the other teams do this week?
▪ Ryan and Dusty, best friends who have been fierce competitors throughout the race, finished in 1st place again this week, despite enduring a leg cramp after the detour challenge.
▪ Twin sisters and radio hosts Lulu and Lala finished in 2nd place.
▪ Flight attendants Raquel and Cayla finished in 4th place. They will leave in the second departing group with Kim and Penn at the start of next week’s episode.
▪ Married educators Akbar and Sheri finished in 5th place.
▪ Father and daughter Arun and Natalia, who rejoined the race last week after previously being eliminated before the pause in filming, finished in 6th place this week.
Which team was eliminated this week?
No one was eliminated this week.
Although Arun and Natalia finished in last place this week, they were not eliminated, as host Phil Keoghan announced when they arrived to the pit stop that this week was a non-elimination leg of the race.
Looking forward to next week’s episode
Next week’s episode preview shows the teams traveling to Corsica, France, where Ryan and Dusty appear to encounter some uncharacteristic struggles for the duo.
Will the reigning 1st place finishers fall behind? Will Kim and Penn rise to the top of the pack? Who will be eliminated?
We’ll see you back here next week to find out.
More about Kim & Penn Holderness
Most people recognize Kim and Penn from their online videos posted on “The Holderness Family” accounts — most notably “Christmas Jammies,” which went viral in 2013 and has more than 18 million views to-date.
Prior to making the switch to full-time content creation, Kim and Penn both worked in TV news. They have a combined 25 years of experience in the industry, including Penn’s six years as an evening anchor at WNCN/CBS 17 in Raleigh.
Following the success of “Jammies,” the Raleigh couple, along with their two children, now “chronicle their marriage and their family with funny music videos, vlogs, skits and a podcast.” The couple also released a book in March 2021.
Previous ‘Amazing Race’ recaps
Catch up on our previous coverage of Kim and Penn and their journey on “The Amazing Race” with these stories:
▪ Raleigh’s Holderness Family of ‘Christmas Jammies’ fame to compete on ‘The Amazing Race’
▪ Week 2 recap: Glasgow, Scotland
How to watch ‘The Amazing Race’
New episodes of “The Amazing Race” air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.
You can also stream episodes after they air at cbs.com/shows/amazing_race.
