Dancing with the Stars 3 (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The third season of Dancing With the Stars premiered on September 12, 2006 and ended November 15, 2006. The number of couples expanded from ten the previous season to 11.

For this season, the scoring system was changed. Fan vote only counted for 25% of the total score and scoring was now translated directly from percentages rather than into ordinals. The judges scores were added up, and each performer was given points based on the percentage of the total points distributed among all performers. (For example, a team received a score of 25. A total of 207 points were awarded to all nine performers. The team received 12.08% of that total, so that team earned 12.08 points. The couple happens to be Sara & Tony.) The fan vote was handled the same way, with the points based on how much of the total fan vote the star received. (So, in the same example, if the team earned 15% of the total fan vote, their grand total is 27.08 points.)

The results shows of this season featured the Slim Fast Dance Challenge, where Tysonia Sichinga and Christian Perry illustrated how exercise such as dancing could aid weight loss. Unfortunately, Tysonia wound up gaining 5 pounds from what she said, "too much Slim Fast".

The season finale brought in 27.8 million viewers, making it the highest rated Dancing with the Stars season finale to date. Emmitt Smith was the celebrity winner from this season.

Couples

The 11 celebrities and professional dancers that competed were:

Celebrity	Occupation	Professional partner	Result
Tucker Carlson	Political broadcaster	Elena Grinenko	Eliminated 1st on September 13, 2006
Shanna Moakler	Former Miss USA & reality television star	Jesse DeSoto	Eliminated 2nd on September 20, 2006
Harry Hamlin	Television & movie actor	Ashly DelGrosso	Eliminated 3rd on September 27, 2006
Vivica A. Fox	Movie actress	Nick Kosovich	Eliminated 4th on October 4, 2006
Willa Ford	Singer & actress	Maksim Chmerkovskiy	Eliminated 5th on October 11, 2006
Sara Evans	Country music singer	Tony Dovolani	Withdrew on October 13, 2006
Jerry Springer	Talk show host	Kym Johnson	Eliminated 6th on October 25, 2006
Monique Coleman	Actress	Louis Van Amstel	Eliminated 7th on November 1, 2006
Joey Lawrence	Actor	Edyta ?liwi?ska	Third place on November 8, 2006
Mario Lopez	Actor & television host	Karina Smirnoff	Runner-up on November 15, 2006
Emmitt Smith	Retired NFL player	Cheryl Burke	Winner on November 15, 2006

Sara Evans' withdrawal

On October 12, 2006, Sara Evans announced her withdrawal from the competition to be with her kids after filing for divorce from her husband, Craig Schelske. In a "final appearance", a pre-taped interview with Evans about her decision was shown on the October 17 episode.

Willa Ford stated on Headline News' Robin & Company that ABC had invited her to return to the competition, but she declined. At the end of the October 18 results show, after showing the bottom two, it was revealed that there would be no elimination for the week due to Evans' departure. The scores of Week 6 were combined with the scores of Week 7 for the October 25 elimination. Evans returned for the season finale.

Fan voting influence

On weeks four and five Ford and Fox were eliminated, despite Ford having tied in first place, and Fox tied in fourth. Ford was in the bottom two along with Springer, who was tied for the lowest score. Fox was in the bottom two along with Coleman, who both performed great the previous week and tied for fourth that week. Ford's elimination was booed by the audience, and so was Fox's. This extends the theme similar to last season where dancers with higher scores were often eliminated before ones that tended to get lower scores and also had more popularity with the fan vote. This circumstance would also happen again in season 11, with Bristol Palin getting the lowest scores in many consecutive weeks and higher scoring couples being eliminated. The Opie and Anthony radio show ran a campaign to keep Springer on the show, urging their fan base (nicknamed pests) to repeatedly vote for the pair, despite Jerry Springer's repeated live call-ins urging them to "give him a break."

Judges' scoring summary

Red numbers indicate the couples with the lowest score for each week.

Green numbers indicate the couples with the highest score for each week.

Bold black numbers indicate that the entire score board was tied

{{colorbox}} indicates the couples eliminated that week.

{{colorbox}} indicates the returning couple that finished in the bottom two.

{{colorbox}} indicates the winning couple.

{{colorbox}} indicates the runner-up couple.

{{colorbox}} indicates the couple withdrew from the competition.

{{colorbox}} indicates the third-place couple.

{{colorbox}} indicates the couple that should've been eliminated had an elimination taken place.

Couple	Place	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	6+7	8	9	10
Emmitt & Cheryl	1	24	24	19	24	27	25	28+29=57	82	25+29=54	29+30=59	30+30+29=89
Mario & Karina	2	26	21	22	29	27	28	29+27=56	84	28+29=57	30+29=59	29+30+30=89
Joey & Edyta	3	21	29	22	27	25	24	29+28=57	81	28+26=54	29+30=59
Monique & Louis	4	19	26	27	24	27	23	27+27=54	77	24+29=53
Jerry & Kym	5	16	19	21	22	24	18	24+22=46	64
Sara & Tony	6	15	21	25	20	24
Willa & Maksim	7	22	23	22	28	27
Vivica & Nick	8	22	24	27	24
Harry & Ashly	9	17	21	22
Shanna & Jesse	10	18	22
Tucker & Elena	11	12

Highest and lowest scoring performances

Dance	Best dancer	Best score	Worst dancer	Worst score
Cha-cha-cha	Emmitt Smith	30	Tucker Carlson	12
Foxtrot	Mario Lopez Joey Lawrence	29	Sara Evans	15
Mambo	Emmitt Smith	30	Sara Evans	21
Quickstep	Joey Lawrence	29	Jerry Springer	19
Jive	Monique Coleman Mario Lopez	27	Joey Lawrence Willa Ford	22
Tango	Mario Lopez	30	Emmitt Smith	19
Waltz	Emmitt Smith	29	Jerry Springer	22
Rumba	Joey Lawrence	30	Joey Lawrence	24
Paso Doble	Mario Lopez	30	Jerry Springer	18
Samba	Emmitt Smith	30	Monique Coleman	23
Freestyle	Mario Lopez	30	Emmitt Smith	29

Shanna Moakler, Harry Hamlin & Vivica A. Fox are the only celebrities to not land on this list.

Dance chart

Couple	1	2	3	4	5	6		7		8		9		10
Emmitt	Cha-cha-cha	Quickstep	Tango	Paso Doble	Samba	Jive	Disco	Waltz	Mambo	Foxtrot	Rumba	Waltz	Cha-cha-cha	Samba	Mambo	Freestyle
Mario & Karina	Cha-cha-cha	Quickstep	Tango	Paso Doble	Rumba	Mambo	Disco	Foxtrot	Jive	Waltz	Samba	Tango	Cha-cha-cha	Samba	Paso Doble	Freestyle
Joey & Edyta	Cha-cha-cha	Quickstep	Jive	Waltz	Samba	Rumba	Disco	Foxtrot	Mambo	Tango	Paso Doble	Quickstep	Rumba			Foxtrot
Monique & Louis	Foxtrot	Mambo	Jive	Waltz	Rumba	Samba	Disco	Quickstep	Paso Doble	Tango	Cha-cha-cha					Jive
Jerry & Kym	Cha-cha-cha	Quickstep	Tango	Waltz	Samba	Paso Doble	Disco	Foxtrot	Mambo							Samba
Sara & Tony	Foxtrot	Mambo	Jive	Paso Doble	Samba	Withdrew										Jive
Willa & Maksim	Foxtrot	Mambo	Jive	Waltz	Rumba											Rumba
Vivica & Nick	Foxtrot	Mambo	Tango	Paso Doble												Paso Doble
Harry & Ashly	Cha-cha-cha	Quickstep	Tango													Quickstep
Shanna & Jesse	Foxtrot	Mambo														Mambo
Tucker & Elena	Cha-cha-cha															Cha-cha-cha

{{colorbox}} Highest scoring dance
{{colorbox}} Lowest scoring dance
{{colorbox}} Performed but not scored
{{colorbox}} Indicates the couple withdrew from the competition

This was the only season in which the runner-up got the highest Freestyle score and did not win the season. Willa & Maksim is the only couple who was at the top of the leader board (with couples scoring less than them) and was eliminated.