‘Amazing Race’ Week 8: Holdernesses leave no stone unturned in Greece. How’d they do?
Updated March 2, 2022: How did Kim and Penn Holderness finish on “The Amazing Race” finale? Check out our recap here.
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.
Last week’s episode saw the five remaining teams travel from Corsica, France, to Halkidiki, Greece, where they were tested on their memory and spelling skills in a series of Greek-themed challenges.
Kim and Penn had yet another impressive showing, finishing in 1st place and winning $7,500 each. The victory marked their third-straight win and fourth total in the race thus far, the most of any team this season. Not too shabby!
Last week’s leg of the race was an elimination leg, and we said goodbye to twin sisters and radio hosts Lulu and Lala, who struggled with navigation early in the leg and continued to stumble through the remaining challenges.
The race is now down to four teams — and we’re just one week away from the two-hour season finale, which means things are really heating up.
On this week’s episode, racers are set to travel to Thessaloniki, Greece, where they’ll “leave no stone unturned while looking for a clue.” In a preview of the episode shown last week, Kim refers to a challenge as a “nightmare,” while Ryan and Dusty say it could be “anybody’s race.”
So, how did Kim and Penn perform this week? What challenges did the racers complete? Who was eliminated?
Let’s find out in this recap of Week 8 of “The Amazing Race.”
How did the Holderness team place this week?
Kim and Penn finished in 2nd place this week. They’ll leave in the second departure group at the beginning of next week’s finale.
What challenges did teams complete this week?
This week’s episode kicked off with the teams still in Greece and opening a clue instructing them to drive to a forest theater in Thessaloniki, Greece, north of the previous leg’s pit stop.
As last week’s 1st and 2nd place teams respectively, Kim and Penn and Raquel and Cayla left the pit stop first, followed by Ryan and Dusty and Arun and Natalia.
Kim and Penn arrived to the forest theater first. They found a clue for a roadblock challenge, which required them to turn over what looked like thousands of stones to find gold coins underneath.
Only one person from each team can complete roadblock challenges, and the Holdernesses elected Kim for this one.
Kim said she was “immediately overwhelmed” by the task, but tried to quickly establish a systematic approach to combing through the stones.
Raquel and Cayla arrived as Kim was still searching for the coins, and they were closely followed by Ryan and Dusty. Arun and Natalia arrived to the theater last, though all of the teams were still looking for the coins by the time they joined the search.
After some narrow misses and at least an hour at the challenge, Raquel found a coin first, allowing the flight attendant duo to leave the roadblock in 1st place. They were followed by Kim and Penn, who left in 2nd place. Arun and Natalia left in 3rd place, with Ryan and Dusty following in a distant last after multiple hours spent at the stones.
The teams’ next clue instructed them to drive to the Trigonion Tower and find Socrates, who would have the next clue in his “words of wisdom.”
Socrates’ clue held a detour challenge, in which teams could choose between two tasks involving plates. In one option, teams could smash plates while a band played music behind them. In the other option, teams had to deliver 300 plates up a hill to a cafe.
Raquel and Cayla and the Holdernesses chose the plate-smashing option, as did Arun and Natalia and Ryan and Dusty.
Once the teams completed their plate challenges, they found a clue with the name of the location for this leg’s pit stop, the White Tower, where they raced after the detour.
Episode highlight from the Holderness duo
Our highlight from the Holdernesses came early in the episode this week, when Kim and Penn talked about their family motto of sorts: “I’m doing the best I can.”
Kim used the phrase while she helped Penn, who was driving, navigate to the roadblock challenge at the forest theater, then explained that in their family, they like to believe that most people you meet in life are doing their best — so it’s important to give them grace and understanding.
Kim went on to say that she and Penn also applied the phrase to their journey on the race. While they knew parts of the race would be frustrating and they might get annoyed with each other, she said, at the end of the day, they both understood that they were doing the best they could.
We liked the moment, and appreciated the deeper glimpse into the duo’s gameplay and attitude throughout the race. (We’ll file away the motto for our own use, too.)
How did the other teams do this week?
▪ Flight attendants Raquel and Cayla finished in 1st place this week. This marked the duo’s first 1st place finish in the race.
▪ Father and daughter Arun and Natalia struggled with navigation and had some father-daughter conflicts in this leg, but ultimately finished in 3rd place.
▪ Best friends Ryan and Dusty spent multiple hours at the stone-turning roadblock, leaving in a distant last. While they made an impressive sprint to catch up, they weren’t able to catch Arun and Natalia, and finished in last place.
Which team was eliminated this week?
No one was eliminated this week.
While Ryan and Dusty finished in last place, host Phil Keoghan announced at the pit stop that this leg was a non-elimination leg, so all four teams will compete in the finale next week.
Looking forward to next week’s finale episode
Next week is the two-hour season finale, and we’ll finally see who wins the $1 million grand prize.
The preview for next week’s episode shows the final four teams smashing pinatas, rowing boats and racing to the finish line.
Who will win it all? We’ll find out next week. See you then.
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
▪ Week 6 recap: Corsica, France, part two
▪ Week 7 recap: Halkidiki, Greece
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 23, 2022 at 10:12 PM with the headline "‘Amazing Race’ Week 8: Holdernesses leave no stone unturned in Greece. How’d they do?."
