The final episode of the 2005 season was one of the most popular shows in Chinese broadcast history, drawing over 400 million viewers, more than the China Central Television New Year's Gala earlier that year. The final peaked at 280 million viewers at a given time, dwarfing the 12-million-viewer figure for the finals of "Pop Idol". Despite the show being condemned by China Central Television as being "vulgar and manipulative", a third season of the show was launched and finished in early October 2006.