Joe and Heidi Wang. (CBS photo)

Microsoft employees will be rooting for one of their own in the new season of "The Amazing Race," which debuts Sunday night on CBS. The competitors include Microsoft enterprise sales specialist Joe Wang, 42, based in Southern California, who teams with his wife, Heidi, in the show's 16th season.

They may not get as much attention at the outset as fellow competitor Caite Upton, the former Miss South Carolina Teen USA, who will be making a highly ironic appearance in the race-around-the-world in an attempt to disprove the reputation she earned with a famously incoherent answer to a geography question. However, one entertainment blog has already predicted that Joe Wang could turn out to be this season's villain.

We asked Wang about that prediction and other topics -- including his thoughts on how Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer would do if they were on the show -- in a phone interview last week. (Although the season has already been taped, he was careful not to spoil anything.) Continue reading for highlights from our conversation.

How did you decide to try out for the show with your wife, and how did you get on? My wife and I saw a full season, season 14, the winners were Victor and Tammy. I'm a Chinese immigrant here in the United States, and we just got really proud to see that. We got really excited and said, let's go apply to be on the show and see what happens. The process is a very long one. It's not for the fainthearted, but we made it through all these rounds and finally got selected.

In what ways has your time at Microsoft prepared you for the Amazing Race? Absolutely, being a salesperson definitely prepares you to be on top of your game. We compete every day with competitors like Oracle, like SAP, like Apple. All those big vendors, IBM. Being on the race, basically, you're in that mode.

This is a very practical question, but how do you get the time off to do something like the Amazing Race? I just requested vacation time. Me being there for eight years, I had accrued a lot of vacation. ... I took four weeks.

I was reading some of the blogs that follow the Amazing Race, and one of them, out of Birmingham, has pegged you as the villian. Really? You know, there was a video out on CBS.com when we first announced, and I got a lot of comments about being "that guy" on the show. At the end of the day, however they portray me, it's for entertainment purposes. People that know me know I am a very intense person. There's no question I am very intense, and you'll see that from the show. If that makes me a villian, I'll take it as a positive more than a negative.

How are you going to be watching the show this season? Are you going to tune in every week, or are you going to specifically avoid it? No, no, you can't avoid it. This is probably our favorite season. We love the cast. No, we'll definitely have a premier viewing event with our friends. We actually have a lot of friends who will be with us in Santa Monica, cheering us on. There will be Microsoft people there, and then every weekend, we have been invited to other peoples' houses to view with them.

Knowing what you do about Microsoft, and the Amazing Race, how do you think Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer would do on the show? You know, Steve Ballmer would do great. He's high energy, a motivational kind of guy, and the race is all about that. I think Bill being reserved, I mean, I'm sure he would do well, but he wouldn't be as dynamic as Steve would.

But in that way, wouldn't they balance themselves out well? Oh you mean Bill and Steve together. Yeah, then absolutely.

Right, Bill would have the cool head to find the best tickets, and Steve would be urging them on, I bet. You know, I heard that this is one of Steve's favorite shows. At Microsoft, people have mentioned that to me, once they found out I was on the show.

Was that on your mind, as you were going through the Amazing Race, as in 'My real boss is watching, my ultimate boss'? Were you thinking about that? No, I never had that in my mind, because this was about Joe and Heidi. ... One thing I do want to say is that I think this represents well for Microsoft, to have an individual like myself in the public eye. ... The experience is about reaching the highest level, pushing the envelope, and I really feel like the show has opened that up. There's a lot of things out there in life that you can look at. Just have an open mind.