diff --git a/explorer/Explorer.tsx b/explorer/Explorer.tsx
index 70635d73e4d..d04cec71533 100644
--- a/explorer/Explorer.tsx
+++ b/explorer/Explorer.tsx
@@ -709,9 +709,15 @@ export class Explorer
         grapher.reset()
         this.updateGrapherFromExplorerCommon()
         grapher.updateFromObject(config)
-        await grapher.downloadLegacyDataFromOwidVariableIds(
-            inputTableTransformer
-        )
+        if (dimensions.length === 0) {
+            // If dimensions are empty, explicitly set the table to an empty table
+            // so we don't end up confusingly showing stale data from a previous chart
+            grapher.receiveOwidData(new Map())
+        } else {
+            await grapher.downloadLegacyDataFromOwidVariableIds(
+                inputTableTransformer
+            )
+        }
     }
 
     @action.bound private updateGrapherFromExplorerUsingColumnSlugs() {
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/OwidTable.ts b/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/OwidTable.ts
index e1c224f5296..3c1568d6370 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/OwidTable.ts
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/OwidTable.ts
@@ -1051,10 +1051,7 @@ export class OwidTable extends CoreTable<OwidRow, OwidColumnDef> {
     }
 
     get isBlank(): boolean {
-        return (
-            this.tableDescription.startsWith(BLANK_TABLE_MESSAGE) &&
-            !this.numRows
-        )
+        return !this.numRows
     }
 }