The third season of Vietnam Idol premiered on VTV6 on August 21, 2010. There are two episodes every Tuesday and Saturday together with a daily five-minute news. This season features a new option for the judges is to "save" a contestant from elimination. This, however, was not used this season.

Trần Nguyễn Uyên Linh was announced to be the third winner of Vietnam Idol, she received $20,000 in cash and a recording contract.^[1]

Following a break in production, it was confirmed that the show has been renewed for 2010. The new season will adopt a new structure, with changes to broadcasting and production. The broadcasting stations were changed from HTV (Ho Chi Minh City Television) to VTV6 - a cable channel targeted at young audiences of VTV (Vietnam Television) ^[2] The producer company of the first 2 seasons, Dong Tay Promotion, will be replaced by BHD Pictures.^[2] Siu Black remains on the judging panel but will be joined by two new judges, Quốc Trung and Nguyễn Quang Dũng. Phan Anh will also take over as the host of the contest.^[3][4]

Audition round

More information Air Date, Audion Region ...

Air Date	Audion Region	First Audition Date	Call-Back Audition Date	Venue	Golden Tickets
August 21, 2010	Hanoi	July 3–5, 2010	July 6–7, 2010	National Convention Center	37
August 28, 2010	Danang	June 27, 2010	June 28–29, 2010	Life Resort	9
	Can Tho	July 13, 2010	July 14–15, 2010	Palace Cần Thơ Hotel	7
September 4, 2010	Ho Chi Minh City	July 21–23, 2010	July 23–25, 2010	Crescent Plaza	43
Total Tickets to Ho Chi Minh City					96

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Auditions were also held in Central Highlands and North regions.^[5]

One hundred contestants will advance from this round and into the Knock Out Round.

The semi-finals takes place over three weeks, with the results announced the following Tuesday. During the first two weeks, sixteen contestants are split and perform by gender. Only four of them will be given a bye to the Top 10, while the remaining 10 contestants compete in the last semi-final round for a spot in the finals. During this whole process, judges have the right to let their five favorite contestants be finalists.

The finals began two weeks after the semi-finals had concluded. Journalist Đặng Diễm Quỳnh is added to the judging panel at the start of the finals.

Each week the finalists perform live on stage to a television audience. The contestant receiving the least viewers' votes is eliminated from the competition. Introduced for the first time this season is the ability of the judges to collectively override the voters' decision once, if they deem that a contestant has been voted-out prematurely. Should this option is activated, two contestants would be eliminated the following week instead of one.

¹ The official results had Uyên Linh eliminated from the show. However, Đăng Khoa, who was safe in this round, announced that he preferred to withdraw from the competition in her stead. This followed controversy from a released surreptitious recording of a conversation involving eliminated finalist Đức Anh insulting fellow eliminated contestants, judges, the media, and others. The fifteen-minute audio was first released onto the internet forums, and subsequently released onto websites like YouTube. Đăng Khoa has admitted to being the one who did the recording but has denied being the one who released the audio. On behalf of the Executive Producers and Judges of Vietnam Idol, Diễm Quỳnh accepted Khoa's request to withdraw; therefore, Uyên Linh was saved from elimination at the last moment and did not have to perform her exit song.

Cảm ơn tình yêu Live Show was a concert featuring all of the season 3 finalists, except for Lều Phương Anh with personal reasons. The show was produced by Huy Tuấn, who was also the musical director of Vietnam Idol this season, and was sponsored by MobiFone. The concert was held in Hanoi on January 23, 2011.