I'm trying to figure out who ends up in the final 4 in your scenario. Your first 4 challenges will eliminate damn near everybody.
We have so far:
JEB Bush , Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Rick Santorum, Lyndsay Graham, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, George Pataki, Jim Gilmore and Bob Erlich right now. So yeah 18. (What a crew.)
Home Run contest. Fiorina is definately not making it so she is out. Of the rest of the them, I'm betting Pataki is probably the worst, and I only say that because Trump, Graham, Huckabee, Gilmore and Erlich probably can muster 1. So we are down Fiorina and Pataki.
Spelling Bee - Gilmore and Erlich get lost here. I need three more. I know Perry is an obvious choice but he might surprise. Wouldn't be shocked if Jindal pooched the screw here. Santorum will screw it up as well. So, I'm going to say that here we lose Gilmore, Erlich, Santorum, Jindal and I'm going to say Graham just because he will be the funniest loss at this point right now.
Next, citizenship test. I need to lose 3. Carson probably misses it here, as will Trump and want to laugh so hard if Cruz did as well, but he probably hangs on. I'm actually going to say that Walker pooches it here. So, we are down Carson, Trump and Walker
Next is the tax return and we are down to Bush, Rubio, Cruz, Paul, Kasich, Perry, Christie, and Huckabee. Huckabee has no chance here, and neither does Perry. From the rest I'm betting that Christie screws it up the most even though he was a pretty good lawyer but the skills won't trasnfer here.
After the initial 4 rounds we are down to Bush, Rubio, Cruz, Paul and Kasich. Jeopardy time. Bush will do well. Rubio will as well. Cruz and Paul will be fighting each other for the top score and Kasich will slip by. This will be tough with those 5. I think Rubio is the odd one out on a close close score.
So our final 4 is Bush, Cruz, Paul and Kasich. Cruz could very well have the top score and Paul could be #2, but JEB is sneaky. I'm going to say that the final ranking here is Paul - Bush - Cruz - Kasich.
First debate - Paul v. Kasich. Paul is the totalitarian nut job and Kasich is the guy that has been around the block. Kasich can probably win this one. In the second, Bush will eat Cruz alive.
So the final two would be Bush and Kasich. For the chance to get obliterated by Hillary.
Eh...... who knows. I'm bored. And tired of all of these guys and gal.