Singer (season 3)
I Am a Singer (season 3), is a Chinese TV series produced by Hunan TV. The show was launched in 2015, and aired every Friday at 10:00 pm. The program was produced by Hong Tao, and the show's music director was Kubert Leung. In 2015, paid 3 million to acquire exclusive naming rights for the program, compared to Season 2 (0.65 million). There were minor changes to the rules of competition for this season, including the debut of the "Challenge Round", where singers had to finish in a certain position to be allowed to remain in  the competition. This season saw an increase of the number of contestants, at 13, up from 12 from the previous season. The season premiered on January 2, 2015. and ended on April 3, 2015. Han Hong was named the winner of the competition on the finals aired March 27, 2015, and Han was the first female winner of the series. Li Jian and The One came in as first and second runners-up. Competition rules. The Qualifying and Knockout rounds were retained as part of the show's format. As with previous seasons, the combined vote count from both the  Qualifying and Knockout rounds determined which singer was eliminated on the night. Introduced in the last season, was contestants hosting roles; this season featured Leo Ku and Sun Nan as the hosts, which had a comedian manager selected by the show's producers. Challenge round. As the show is being revamped into a new "2+1" format, the +1 was announced as "Challenge Round", which follows after each Knockout. A new Challenger enter the competition taking place for the previously eliminated singer with a twist where the singer requiring to beat a majority of singers (i.e. ranking in top  four or better) or face elimination. If the Challenger was successful, the seven incumbent singers were placed in risk of elimination, while votes cast from the Knockout rounds do not carry forward to the Challenge round. Like eliminated singers, unsuccessful challengers (unless elected to withdraw) were also entitled to return performance and taking part in the Breakouts. To promote the new Challenge round, singers were open for registration via social media. The first singer, Golden Melody Award Newcomer Award winner Li Ronghao took advantage of the registration which helped other singers to promote the program and register themselves for the  competition. The show's official social media website, Sina Weibo revealed that over 60 singers had registered for the show at the close of the registration, but also told only one singer would actually get to participate in the show. Singer voting. Singers can cast their votes for the top three performances before the results were announced. Singer voting did not affect the outcome of the competition and did not count toward the audience's vote count. The singer who finished first in the Singer voting won prizes from a sponsor, or entitled to advantage in the next round. Contestants . The following singers participated in the third season are listed in alphabetical order (singers without a placement for the final is listed as finalist, and singers withdrew were listed as withdrawn): Key: Future appearances. Han Hong, Li Jian, The One, Sitar Tan, Tiger Hu and A-Lin all returned as guest performers on the biennial concert on the following season. Li returned again as a contestant on the fifth season. Han, Kit Chan, A-Lin and Sitar Tan appeared as guest performers on the fifth, sixth and seventh seasons, respectively. The order of performance for this episode was determined by  Han Hong, which the 500-member audience voted for the singer who gave the best first impression. Singer Li Ronghao was the first-ever challenger of "I Am a Singer". Jane Zhang would have been eliminated for finishing last, however, Li was unsuccessful in his challenge (finished 6th) and was eliminated instead. Li Jian was the first substitute singer of the season. For this episode, the performance order was determined by Leo Ku, who finished first last week. Jian was originally going to perform "傳奇" this week, but later scrapped during rehearsals, citing that the song was 'meaningless' to the  competition. Singer Sitar Tan was the second challenger of the season. The One was the second substitute singer of the season. Jess Lee was the third and final challenger of the season. Details of competitions. 3rd round. Challenge (Ultimate Challenge Round). During the results, this round came to have produced the narrowest margin of 26 votes between the top five performers in "I Am a Singer" history, as Tan, Han, The One, A-Lin and Lee, received 241, 232, 232, 216 and 215 votes, respectively (percentages were 16.14%, 15.51%, 15.51%, 14.43% and 14.36%, respectively); by a one-vote difference, Lee  was eliminated for failing the challenge (and Sun Nan, who would have been eliminated for finishing last, was safe). Hsiao Huang Chi was the third and final substitute singer of the season. During this episode, Sun decided to rewrite the lyrics on his performance, "全部的愛", to dedicate his daughter. During this episode, Jian's manager was temporarily replaced by as Shen Mengchen was absent during tapings to host the 2015 Hunan Television special "The Lantern Festival Show". Three of the six singers who were initial singers (A-Lin, Han and Sun) were exempt for this round, while the other three  singers participated with previously eliminated singers for a chance to enter the finals. The order was determined based on the contestant's status quo and their duration on the stage. All but five singers went through ballot to decide the order; Hsiao, Jian and The One selected their performance freely, while unsuccessful challengers (Ronghao and Lee) were defaulted to the first two performances. Zhang was initially eligible to participate, but later declined due to her decision to focus on her new album release on March 11, 2015. Breakout. The singers sang one song, with the four singers having the most  votes qualifying for the finals. During the results, the initial vote count (media) revealed that Jian was ranked first, followed by The One, Tan, and Ku. Initial vote count (managers) revealed that Li Jian was ranked first, The One and Tan were tied for second, and Hsiao and Ronghao were tied for fourth. After the final results were released, Jian, Tan, Hu and The One were the top four singers receiving the highest number of votes and advanced to the finals. The Finals was divided into two rounds, with the first song being a duet with a guest singer, and  the second song being a solo encore performance. For the first time in "I Am a Singer" history, votes were the sole determinant towards the results, and the winner is determined on which singer received a higher accumulated votes. Final Round. 1st round. The first round of the finals was the guest singers' duet. The order was determined through balloting, The singer receiving the lowest number of votes after the first round was eliminated from the competition; A-Lin would have been eliminated for finishing last; however, she was later advanced to the 2nd Round after Sun withdraw from the  competition prior to the results due to personal reasons, citing about his placement in the round. Had it not been for Sun Nan's withdrawal, he would've performed "白天不懂夜的黑" as his encore song. 2nd round. The second round of the finals was the encore song segment. The order of performance for this round was determined by the "First and Last" duel sequence based on the results of the first round, with the order being: 3rd, 4th, 2nd, 5th, 1st and 6th. Overall ranking (Winner of Battle). Before the final results were announced, the host named The One, Jian and  Han as the "Ultimate Winner Candidates". Han was declared the winner with 44.35% of the votes, beating Jian's 33.06% and The One's 22.58% of the votes cast. The percentages reflected in the table counted only the votes of the three aforementioned singers. The concert featured 12 singers from the three seasons: Huang Qishan and Aska Yang from Season 1; Han Lei, Gary Chaw, Jason Zhang and Bibi Zhou from Season 2; and the top six finalists (Han, Jian, The One, Tan, Hu and A-Lin) from Season 3.