Within a few weeks of Hutchison's appointment Mal Young had moved on, being replaced by John Yorke, a previous Executive Producer of EastEnders.
Hutchison was given the task of reversing the fortunes of the BBC's flagship soap; in previous months viewing figures had suffered when up against ITV1's Emmerdale.
During her time at the soap Hutchison axed multiple characters, and reportedly ordered the rewriting of numerous scripts.
In January 2005, Hutchison left the soap and commented: “I’ve enjoyed my brief time at EastEnders and wish the show the very best."
John Yorke said, “Kathleen has done a fantastic job of managing EastEnders during this period of change - I am very grateful to her for all her hard work and for leaving the show in such a strong position for us to build on.”[1] Hutchison moved from drama to comedy in 2005 setting up The Hutch Management, working with stand-up comedians and developing comedy projects for stage and television including a pilot sketch show for Feelgood Fiction starring Nathan Caton in January 2007 and a 30 minute narrative comedy Standing-Up, written by Tommy Mack.