I agree 10 is generous but I'm only talking about the first debate. After that it should be reduced by one or two each debate going forward. If there should be a candidate who cracks the polls from outside matching the criteria they should be included.
What they should do, is make this a reality show...like the Bachelor. With each of the candidates going about their business...running their campaigns, doing the work they do, etc. People can see behind the scenes of what the lives are like for each of these individuals and how hard (or not) they work for their constituents.
Then every week, they have a call in vote from the public (like American Idol, etc, except you can only vote one time per voter ID #) and one candidate gets voted off, until it narrows it down to 5 candidates, who will then vie for the GOP nomination.
I mean, hey, if we’re trying to be up in today’s world and get the low info/non info voter...why not?