page_title: Chartjackers
section_title: Series overview
hierarchical_section_title: Chartjackers / Series overview
caption_attribution_description: Carrie Grant at the Red Bull Flugtag 2008.
context_page_description: Chartjackers is a British documentary series, produced by Hat Trick Productions and commissioned by BBC Switch. It documents the lives of four teenage video bloggers over the course of ten weeks, as they attempt to write, record and release a pop song for charity, with the goal to "sell an estimated 25,000 singles to achieve their dream of a number one single". It premiered in the UK on 12 September 2009 on BBC Two, and ran for a single series of eleven weekly episodes. When first broadcast, the programme ran in real time: its first ten episodes documented the events of the previous seven days, while the final episode was an extended compilation that summarised all ten weeks.
  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. The crowdsourcing took the format of the four bloggers—Alex Day, Johnny Haggart, Jimmy Hill and Charlie McDonnell—posting videos to a dedicated YouTube channel named ChartJackersProject, where they invited viewers to suggest various ideas for the final song.
context_section_description: Chartjackers documented the lives of Day, Haggart, Hill and McDonnell as they attempted to write, record and release a charity single through crowdsourcing. The series was shown in real time, with each of the first ten episodes detailing the events of the previous seven days. 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. A different task would be undertaken each week, so that, by the end of the project, the song would be completed.
  The first episode of Chartjackers documented the events of the first week of the project and explained what its ultimate goal was. To generate potential lyrics, viewers were asked each to post one line as a comment to a video on ChartJackersProject. Viewers posted more than 4,000 comments, from which were selected the winning lines. These lyrics were posted to the Internet the following episode, with the chorus having been composed by YouTube user blakeisno1 and the repeated phrase "I've Got Nothing" chosen for the song's title. ChartJackersProject viewers were then asked to create a melody for the lyrics and submit it in a video response, so that one could be selected for the single.
  Out of a total of 51 melodies that had been sent in, the winning entry by Jonny Dark was chosen from them during episode three. It was also revealed that a band would be put together to perform the Chartjackers single and that any potential members should apply by submitting video auditions. Episode four documented some of the hundreds of auditions that had been sent in – the group reviewed these auditions and selected from them their ten favourites to go through as finalists. 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. During episode six, "I've Got Nothing" was recorded in Newport by record producer Marc Dowding, and the group received advice from video director Corin Hardy on how to film the official music video.
  
  Taking Hardy's advice, the music video for "I've Got Nothing" was filmed during the seventh episode of Chartjackers. To begin promoting its release, the team also petitioned 95.8 Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to try to get the radio coverage for the single, but it was not playlisted and received no airplay. 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. In the next episode, a gathering took place at 93 Feet East in London on 4 November, where the single was performed live for the first time by Chartrand and Nichols. During the tenth episode, "I've Got Nothing" was released online. The midweek charts placed the single at Number 39, but its sales increased after comedian Stephen Fry—who provides an outro for McDonnell's YouTube videos—was convinced to promote it on his Twitter profile. Episode eleven, the final compilation episode, revealed on The Radio 1 Chart Show that "I've Got Nothing" had reached number 36 on the UK Singles Chart, which disappointed the boys.
caption: Vocal coach Carrie Grant offered advice to the boys during episode four of Chartjackers.[21]
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