The Amazing Race returns to CBS Oct. 14. It was to debut in May, but got held up due to the pandemic. Trips to the far corners of the globe may be just what the claustrophobic audience is looking for. 

“We’re good to go,” said Bertram van Munster, co-creator and executive producer. “The audience wants it in the worst way.”

The season sees the contestants venture to Tobago, the Amazon, South America, Europe and Asia. In other words, all over the world. 

Munster mentions “a great hunger” for Amazing Race, people sick of their homes, family members, Zoom. “We are not those kinds of animals,” he said. 

It is season 32. Phil Keoghan hosts. Munster calls Amazing Race “the biggest reality show in the genre.”

Also on Oct. 14 is the fifth and final season of Baroness von Sketch Show on IFC. The ladies offer their usual exploration of the absurdity of modern life. Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeil, Carolyn Taylor and Jennifer Whalen are the Baronesses. 

Browne described the final season as “more and more and more”: bigger, better production values, more fun. “We all got more ambitious in the scenes we were trying to do,” she said. 

There’s a witch trial sketch and a dog show skit and another involving Renaissance painters and drag. There’s an homage to vamp comedy What We Do in the Shadows. 

The troupe has been unwinding amidst the pandemic, but is eager to get back together. Said Browne, “It’s been a restful and creative time for everybody.”

Byrning Down the House on HBO

David Byrne’s American Utopia debuts Oct. 17 on HBO. It’s a film of the former Talking Heads frontman’s Broadway show, offering an array of musicians, dancers and singers, and Byrne in all three roles. Spike Lee directs. 

Lee comes up with interesting camera angles to offer fresh perspectives on Byrne and the gang. “You can see things through a camera lens that you’d never get from your seat,” said David Sirulnick, exec producer for Radical Media. “There are things you can’t see exactly if you’re sitting in the orchestra or in the first mezzanine.”

The Broadway show ran from late in 2019 to early 2020. “How do we come up with something cinematic and additive to the experience of seeing it in the room?” is how Sirulnick described the challenge. 

The show is a mix of Talking Heads numbers, such as “I Zimbra,” “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House,” and Byrne solo stuff. Sirulnick called the stage show “a very, very joyous experience.” He added, “We believe the film has the same effect.” 

As the calendar changes to November this week, upstart streaming service Apple TV+ will make its debut with four new scripted series while IFC returns one of its long-running, signature series.

Apple TV+ will launch Nov. 1 with a lineup of several original shows, including four scripted shows -- period comedy Dickinson, sci-fi series For All Mankind, drama series The Morning Show, and fantasy show See.

Also on the docket for the week is the Oct. 30 season four premiere of the Baroness von Sketch Show (pictured), starring comedians Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

Oct. 29 -- Any One Of Us (documentary) -- HBO

Oct. 30 -- The Bronx, USA (documentary) -- HBO

Nov. 1 -- American Son (movie) -- Netflix

Nov. 1 -- Ghostwriter (children's series) -- Apple TV+

Nov. 1 -- Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (returning series) -- Prime Video

IFC will bring back its comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show for a fourth season beginning Oct. 30.

The sketch series, starring Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen, will debut with back-to-back episodes, Baroness von Sketch Show provides an insightful, satirical look at our everyday modern lives, according to IFC.

Baroness von Sketch Show is executive produced by Jamie Brown, Taylor, MacNeill, Browne and Whalen, who also serves as showrunner.