‘Amazing Race’ Week 6: Raleigh’s Holderness duo eat maggot cheese. How’d they finish?
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.
On last week’s episode, the Holderness duo, plus the five other teams still in the race at the time, traveled from Switzerland to Corsica, France, where they completed challenges involving goat’s milk and navigating through a series of rocks and natural waterslides.
The Holdernesses had an impressive showing last week, finishing the leg in 1st place and taking home $5,000 each. Married educators Akbar and Sheri were eliminated, which means the race is down to five teams this week.
The preview for this week’s episode shows the remaining teams staying in Corsica and, among other challenges, eating maggot-infested cheese. Yum!
So, did Kim and Penn hold on to their lead this week? Who was eliminated? And, perhaps most importantly, did anyone throw up from eating the maggot cheese?
Let’s find out in this recap of Week 6 of “The Amazing Race.”
How did the Holderness team place this week?
Fresh off last week’s 1st place finish, the Holderness duo had a repeat of success, again finishing in 1st place this week. The duo won a trip for two to Turkey.
What challenges did teams complete this week?
This week’s leg of the race kicked off with the teams still in Corsica, France.
Since Kim and Penn finished in 1st place last week, they, along with 2nd place finishers Cayla and Raquel, left last week’s pit stop first, ahead of the three other remaining teams.
The teams’ first clue instructed them to drive south to a watch tower, where they had to eat casu martzu cheese.
Along the drive, we learned that Penn speaks French, as the group stopped to ask a local man for directions and Penn did all of the talking — but it was Raquel and Cayla who arrived to the cheese tasting challenge first, after Kim and Penn missed a turn and fell slightly behind.
Once at the tower, each team downed their share of the casu martzu cheese.
In case you’re wondering, casu martzu is a specialty cheese produced mainly in Sardinia, an island in Italy, and Corsica. The cheese is made from sheep’s milk and contains live cheese fly larvae, or maggots, that are intentionally introduced to the cheese to promote fermentation and decomposition. This process breaks down the cheese’s fats, creating a soft cheese.
Simply put, it’s maggot-infested cheese, and the maggots are still alive when you eat it.
Reactions to the cheese were mixed, as Raquel and Cayla said it was “dry” and “tasted like vomit,” while Kim actually seemed to enjoy it, asking the challenge’s judge questions about the maggots and saying she was going to get some cheese to-go. Penn clearly didn’t enjoy Kim’s commentary, appearing to almost vomit mid-bug cheese snack.
For what it’s worth, we’re with Penn here. Sure, there are a lot of challenges in the world worth the $1 million grand prize this race offers, but bug-infested cheese might be where we draw the line.
After eating the cheese, the teams opened a clue for a detour challenge. For the detour, the teams could choose between a challenge requiring them to row a transparent kayak and pick up metal fish beneath the surface, or one that required them to take a cruise and identify a sequence of similar metal fish under water, then sort and correctly identify the fish to a judge.
Kim and Penn and Raquel and Cayla decided to stick together for the detour, both choosing the cruise option. Two of the other teams, Lulu and Lala and Arun and Natalia, also chose the cruise option, while Ryan and Dusty chose the kayaking challenge.
Penn’s Triangle ties showed up during the cruise challenge, as he used “Duke University” as a code name to remember one of the metal fish that the groups later had to recall to finish the challenge.
By our count, that marks the second Duke mention by the Holderness duo during the race, as the mule they used in a challenge last week was also named Duke. Penn, a UNC-Chapel Hill fan, said on the couple’s podcast last week that using a mule named Duke was a tough task for him.
It appears the memory aid worked, though, as Kim and Penn left the challenge in 1st place, just ahead of Raquel and Cayla.
After almost sinking their kayak, Ryan and Dusty recovered in time to leave the detour in 3rd place. Lulu and Lala and Arun and Natalia decided to repeat the cruise to nail down the correct sequence of fish, but finally left the detour in 4th and 5th place respectively.
After completing their respective detour challenges, the teams opened their next clues, which instructed them to drive to a fishing harbor at southern tip of Corsica.
At the harbor, teams found a clue for a roadblock challenge, where they had to repair holes in fishing nets.
Only one person from each team can complete roadblock challenges, and the Holdernesses elected Penn for this one. He struggled at first, then figured out a technique that worked for him, allowing the pair to leave the challenge in 1st place.
After the roadblock, teams opened clues instructing them to travel to this leg’s pit stop at Bonafacio, “the City of Cliffs.”
Episode highlight from the Holderness duo
Like last week, our highlight this week is Kim and Penn’s 1st place finish.
After last week’s win, Kim said that she wanted to “chill out” and enjoy the race more, and we think that new attitude suited the pair this week.
They appeared to complete the challenges with relative ease, and seemed to be in good spirits when they arrived at the pit stop.
We’re biased, but we hope the duo’s success continues, and that they have even more fun along the way.
How did the other teams do this week?
▪ Flight attendants Raquel and Cayla finished in 2nd place again this week.
▪ Best friends Ryan and Dusty finished in 3rd place again this week.
▪ Twin sisters and radio hosts Lulu and Lala finished in 4th place.
▪ Father and daughter Arun and Natalia finished in 5th place.
Which team was eliminated this week?
No one was eliminated this week.
Father and daughter Arun and Natalia struggled at the roadblock challenge and were unable to catch up to Lulu and Lala, ultimately finishing in 5th place.
However, at the pit stop, host Phil Keoghan announced that this leg of the race was a non-elimination leg, and the duo avoided elimination and got yet another second chance.
Looking forward to next week’s episode
The preview for next week’s show doesn’t give a lot of hints about what happens, aside from some potential errors by Lulu and Lala and subsequent sisterly drama between the duo.
But with only five teams left, we’re sure the next leg of the race will be interesting.
We’ll see you back here next week to see what happens.
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
▪ Week 4 recap: Switzerland, part two
▪ Week 5 recap: Corsica, France
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.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 10:15 PM with the headline "‘Amazing Race’ Week 6: Raleigh’s Holderness duo eat maggot cheese. How’d they finish?."
