TV This Week

SUNDAY

A trip around the world is a once-in-a-lifetime event – unless you’re on one of 11 teams returning for another shot at the title on the premiere of “The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business.” That’s some serious frequent-flier miles. (CBS, 8 p.m.)

Be funny enough to join the cast or famous enough to host, then you might get to see what goes on behind the scenes of a certain long-running, legacy-servicing sketch show. For the rest of us, there’s the special “Saturday Night Live Backstage.” (NBC, 9 p.m.)

MONDAY

“Heroes’” Hayden Panettiere (above) plays the villain – or perhaps the victim, of an overzealous foreign judiciary – in the made-for-cable docudrama “Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy.” Marcia Gay Harden also stars. (Lifetime, 9 p.m.; also Sat.)

TUESDAY

“Frontline” profiles some of the key players in the “Revolution in Cairo” – including the Internet-fueled April 6th Movement, the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood, and the average Egyptian on the street – in a timely new installment. (KOCE, 9 p.m.)

WEDNESDAY

Through thin and thick: After the return of “America’s Next Top Model,” the new reality competition “Shedding for the Wedding” features plus-sized couples looking to lose excess pounds before their big day … and the honeymoon. (KTLA, 8 and 9 p.m.)

THURSDAY

It’s a busy night for Laurence Fishburne, probing reports of zombies (!) on a new “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and portraying Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in a filmed version of the one-man play “Thurgood.” (CBS, 9 p.m.; HBO, 9 p.m.)

FRIDAY

On a new “Supernatural,” Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) are trapped in an alternate reality where they are actors named Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles who star on a show called “Supernatural.” Take that, “Fringe”! (KTLA, 9 p.m.)

SATURDAY

Star of NBC’s “Community” and host of E!’s “The Soup,” Joel McHale (below) is quick with a quip, some snark, a smirk and a smile – which makes him an excellent choice to emcee the “2011 Spirit Awards,” saluting the best in independent film. (IFC, 10 p.m.)