Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner, ISIS leader lead TIME magazine 'Person of the Year' contenders; check out full list here

It looks like Donald Trump's taunting, not to mention condescending, call-out directed to TIME magazine could be working, after all.

The Republican presidential candidate frontrunner has made it to the shortlist for TIME magazine's Person of the Year award. The outspoken billionaire was picked out by the magazine's editors as one of the final eight contenders vying for the ultimate honor and was announced Monday through NBC's TODAY show.

The list will also include some of the most controversial figures and newsmakers this year like transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who have inspired a lot of followers.

The five other contenders are: Black Lives Matter activists, who are known for their equality advocacy, especially among African Americans; Travis Kalanick who is the CEO of the $70 billion-dollar worth Uber company; and three of the most powerful and polarizing politicians today, namely German chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wrote Today News.

And just as sure as day follows night, some of these picks, will definitely, cause a lot of eyebrows to raise. But, the magazine did clarify that the criterion is the person or persons who brought a huge impact on news and our lives, be it for better or for worse.

"The challenge is that on one hand, we're trying to make a decision about who best represents the news of the year. But the pick also needs to have archival value," said Radhika Jones, Deputy Managing Editor for TIME in an earlier article published by the magazine entitled, "Everything You Wanted to Know About TIME's Person of the Year."

"You need the sense that it will stand the test of time. So ideally, we want our Person of the Year to be both a snapshot of where the world is and a picture of where it's going. Someone, or in rare cases, something, that feels like a force of history."

Some of the other interesting tidbits Jones revealed about the Person of the Year is that even inanimate things can win it like the earth and the personal computer; or it could also be a group of people collectively as opposed to just one person; Hitler and Stalin have bagged the distinction; while Steve Jobs has not made the list, but the idea is not farfetched as there are no rules excluding the deceased.