diff --git a/src/ui/public/vis/__tests__/response_handlers/basic.js b/src/ui/public/vis/__tests__/response_handlers/basic.js
index 48fe772941613..a8281b95742b6 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/vis/__tests__/response_handlers/basic.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/vis/__tests__/response_handlers/basic.js
@@ -20,58 +20,26 @@
 import ngMock from 'ng_mock';
 import expect from 'expect.js';
 import { VislibSeriesResponseHandlerProvider } from '../../response_handlers/vislib';
-import { VisProvider } from '../..';
-import fixtures from 'fixtures/fake_hierarchical_data';
-import FixturesStubbedLogstashIndexPatternProvider from 'fixtures/stubbed_logstash_index_pattern';
-
-const rowAgg = [
-  { id: 'agg_1', type: 'avg', schema: 'metric', params: { field: 'bytes' } },
-  { id: 'agg_2', type: 'terms', schema: 'split', params: { field: 'extension', rows: true } },
-  { id: 'agg_3', type: 'terms', schema: 'segment', params: { field: 'machine.os' } },
-  { id: 'agg_4', type: 'terms', schema: 'segment', params: { field: 'geo.src' } }
-];
-
 
 describe('Basic Response Handler', function () {
   let basicResponseHandler;
-  let indexPattern;
-  let Vis;
 
   beforeEach(ngMock.module('kibana'));
   beforeEach(ngMock.inject(function (Private) {
     basicResponseHandler = Private(VislibSeriesResponseHandlerProvider).handler;
-    Vis = Private(VisProvider);
-    indexPattern = Private(FixturesStubbedLogstashIndexPatternProvider);
   }));
 
-  it('calls hierarchical converter if isHierarchical is set to true', () => {
-    const vis = new Vis(indexPattern, {
-      type: 'pie',
-      aggs: rowAgg
-    });
-    basicResponseHandler(vis, fixtures.threeTermBuckets).then(data => {
-      expect(data).to.not.be.an('undefined');
-      expect(data.rows[0].slices).to.not.be.an('undefined');
-      expect(data.rows[0].series).to.be.an('undefined');
-    });
-  });
-
   it('returns empty object if conversion failed', () => {
-    basicResponseHandler({}, {}).then(data => {
+    basicResponseHandler({}).then(data => {
       expect(data).to.not.be.an('undefined');
       expect(data.rows).to.equal([]);
     });
   });
 
-  it('returns converted data', () => {
-    const vis = new Vis(indexPattern, {
-      type: 'histogram',
-      aggs: rowAgg.slice(0, 3)
-    });
-    basicResponseHandler(vis, fixtures.threeTermBuckets).then(data => {
+  it('returns empty object if no data was found', () => {
+    basicResponseHandler({ columns: [{ id: '1', title: '1', aggConfig: {} }], rows: [] }).then(data => {
       expect(data).to.not.be.an('undefined');
-      expect(data.rows[0].slices).to.be.an('undefined');
-      expect(data.rows[0].series).to.not.be.an('undefined');
+      expect(data.rows).to.equal([]);
     });
   });
 
diff --git a/src/ui/public/vis/response_handlers/vislib.js b/src/ui/public/vis/response_handlers/vislib.js
index 820bb787453be..8af6d87550238 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/vis/response_handlers/vislib.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/vis/response_handlers/vislib.js
@@ -26,8 +26,9 @@ function convertTableGroup(tableGroup, convertTable) {
   const tables = tableGroup.tables;
   const firstChild = tables[0];
 
-  if (firstChild.columns) {
+  if (!tables.length) return;
 
+  if (firstChild.columns) {
     const chart = convertTable(firstChild);
     // if chart is within a split, assign group title to its label
     if (tableGroup.$parent) {
@@ -36,8 +37,6 @@ function convertTableGroup(tableGroup, convertTable) {
     return chart;
   }
 
-  if (!tables.length) return;
-
   const out = {};
   let outList;