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. The fan vote was handled the same way, with the points based on how much of the total fan vote the star received.

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".