The Chartjackers single was written entirely through crowdsourcing, with the song's title, lyrics, melody, singers, band, production, cover art and music video all being solicited from the global online community.

After receiving advice from industry experts such as Charlie Simpson and David and Carrie Grant, the completed Chartjackers single, entitled "I've Got Nothing", was released through the iTunes Store at the end of the ten-week period on 9 November.

It was commissioned by Geoffrey Goodwin and Jo Twist of the television brand BBC Switch, and was featured as part of a season of multi-platform content intended to appeal to teenagers.

[8] Chartjackers was executively produced by Davenport, Hat Trick's digital department head, who had previously worked on similar cross-platform projects that incorporated both television and online media, such as the video podcast of Have I Got News For You and the YouTube-based series Bryony Makes a Zombie Movie.

[7] Miranda Chartrand and Adam Nichols, the vocalists who sang on the completed Chartjackers single, were cast halfway through the programme's series as part of an audition process and were featured in the remainder of the episodes.

On 5 September 2009, one week before the programme's first episode aired, the group announced on the YouTube channel ChartJackersProject their intention to release a number one single within their ten-week time frame.

These ten finalists performed for the four boys during episode five, where Chartrand, a 19-year-old au pair from Stroud, Gloucestershire, and Nichols, an 18-year-old musician from Essex, were selected to sing on the official release.

The boys feared that the song would not chart at all, so, during episode eight, they urged viewers to spam the Twitter feeds of radio DJs who could play the single on their shows.

The midweek charts placed the single at Number 39, but its sales increased after comedian Stephen Fry—who provided an outro for McDonnell's YouTube videos—was convinced to promote it on his Twitter profile.

The first celebrity to feature on the show was former pop star Chesney Hawkes, who remarked that he felt that the team had "every experience between [them] to actually pull [their aim of reaching number one] off".

During episode six, the team met with Peter Oakley, who spoke about his own chart success as part of The Zimmers, and Hardy, who advised ways in which the music video could be filmed.

The next episode, the group received advice from celebrity stylist Hannah Sandling, who suggested how Chartrand and Nichols should be styled for the video, and entertainment journalist Rav Singh, who discussed how to get airplay for "I've Got Nothing" through publicity stunts.

[27][28] Similarly negative reviews came from Eammon Forde of Music Week, who said the decision to release the single without management was "ridiculous" and that the campaign was "doomed",[2] and Pocket-lint, who described the show as a "car crash".

[29] In the week of the single's release, Irish television personality Stephen Byrne questioned on his Twitter profile whether the main motivation for the project really was "charity"[4] – British comedian David Bass agreed with him.

[30] The project was quickly overshadowed by a similar, more successful campaign to get "Killing in the Name" by American metal band Rage Against the Machine to top the UK Singles Chart for Christmas 2009.

[43] The music video for "I've Got Nothing" featured footage of Chartrand and Nichols singing the song in a London park, along with an actor dressed as Children in Need mascot Pudsey Bear.