'Amazing Race' honcho teases new season

With the season 13 debut of CBS’ The Amazing Race looming just around the corner (okay, Sept. 28), exec producer Bertram Van Munster slipped us a few clues about the upcoming globetrot.

• The race takes 23 days, covers nearly 40,000 miles, spans five continents, and features some far-flung locales never before seen on the show, including Angkor Wat, Cambodia and La Paz, Bolivia.

• The youngest team is a tandem of two guys in their early 20s. “They’re made for television,” Van Munster says. “They’re supersmart — and they make terrible mistakes.” A pair of recent divorcees in their late 20s also vie for the million-dollar prize. “They were left with some financial debt, so they really have a motive to run around the world,” he says. And once again, expect a serving of granola — this time with a husband-wife squad of 60-something Oregon hippies. “They’re the real thing,” says Van Munster. “They come right out of the ’60s. To a lot of people, it looks almost like they’re from a different planet.”

• As for the challenges, “We’ve really outdone ourselves in the department of outrageousness,”  Van Munster declares. “We have a situation in Bolivia where we have the [contestants] go down a cobblestone hill on very, very primitive bikes, and it’s just the most hilarious thing you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s a truly bone-jarring experience.” (Another must-see detour: A by-train-or-by-bus scavenger hunt in Moscow. )

• One familiar thing actually did happen on this race: The producers didn’t predict the winner. Says Van Munster, “We’ve been wrong every time, across the board.”