diff --git a/scripts/lua/modules/alert_utils.lua b/scripts/lua/modules/alert_utils.lua
index 877c37f278..4635a24e60 100644
--- a/scripts/lua/modules/alert_utils.lua
+++ b/scripts/lua/modules/alert_utils.lua
@@ -1070,7 +1070,7 @@ function drawAlertSourceSettings(entity_type, alert_source, delete_button_msg, d
 	    print[[<tr><td colspan=5>]] print(i18n("flow_callbacks.no_callbacks_available_disabled_alerts", {url = ntop.getHttpPrefix().."/lua/admin/prefs.lua?tab=alerts"})) print[[.</td></tr>]]
 	 end
       else
-	 local benchmarks = user_scripts.getLastBenchmark(ifid, entity_type) or {}
+	 local benchmarks = user_scripts.getLastBenchmark(ifid, entity_type)
 
 	 for mod_k, user_script in pairsByKeys(available_modules.modules, asc) do
 	    local key = user_script.key
diff --git a/scripts/lua/modules/user_scripts.lua b/scripts/lua/modules/user_scripts.lua
index d1933113a5..5c3ae2081b 100644
--- a/scripts/lua/modules/user_scripts.lua
+++ b/scripts/lua/modules/user_scripts.lua
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ function user_scripts.getLastBenchmark(ifid, subdir)
    if(not isEmptyString(scripts_benchmarks)) then
       scripts_benchmarks = json.decode(scripts_benchmarks)
    else
-      scripts_benchmarks = nil
+      scripts_benchmarks = {}
    end
 
    return(scripts_benchmarks)