diff --git a/check_http_json.py b/check_http_json.py
index 6b74bd9..4781abd 100755
--- a/check_http_json.py
+++ b/check_http_json.py
@@ -225,9 +225,9 @@ class JsonRuleProcessor:
         if self.rules.value_separator:
             value_separator = self.rules.value_separator
         self.helper = JsonHelper(self.data, separator, value_separator)
-        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "rules:%s" % rules_args)
-        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "separator:%s" % separator)
-        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "value_separator:%s" % value_separator)
+        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "rules: %s" % rules_args)
+        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "separator: %s" % separator)
+        debugPrint(rules_args.debug, "value_separator: %s" % value_separator)
         self.metric_list = self.expandKeys(self.rules.metric_list)
         self.key_threshold_warning = self.expandKeys(
             self.rules.key_threshold_warning)
@@ -346,6 +346,8 @@ class JsonRuleProcessor:
 
     def checkCritical(self):
         failure = ''
+        if not self.data:
+            failure = " Empty JSON data."
         if self.key_threshold_critical is not None:
             failure += self.checkThresholds(self.key_threshold_critical)
         if self.key_value_list_critical is not None:
diff --git a/test/test_check_http_json.py b/test/test_check_http_json.py
index 489213a..659e77c 100644
--- a/test/test_check_http_json.py
+++ b/test/test_check_http_json.py
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ class UtilTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         # This should not throw a KeyError
         data = '{}'
-        self.check_data(rules.dash_q(['(0).Node,foobar', '(1).Node,missing']), data, WARNING_CODE)
+        self.check_data(rules.dash_q(['(0).Node,foobar', '(1).Node,missing']), data, CRITICAL_CODE)
 
     def test_subelem(self):
 
@@ -274,3 +274,23 @@ class UtilTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.check_data(rules.dash_E(['(*).capacity.value.too_deep']), data, CRITICAL_CODE)
         # Should not throw keyerror
         self.check_data(rules.dash_E(['foo']), data, CRITICAL_CODE)
+
+
+    def test_empty_key_value_array(self):
+        """
+        https://github.com/drewkerrigan/nagios-http-json/issues/61
+        """
+
+        rules = RulesHelper()
+
+        # This should simply work
+        data = '[{"update_status": "finished"},{"update_status": "finished"}]'
+        self.check_data(rules.dash_q(['(*).update_status,finished']), data, OK_CODE)
+
+        # This should warn us
+        data = '[{"update_status": "finished"},{"update_status": "failure"}]'
+        self.check_data(rules.dash_q(['(*).update_status,finished']), data, WARNING_CODE)
+
+        # This should throw an error
+        data = '[]'
+        self.check_data(rules.dash_q(['(*).update_status,warn_me']), data, CRITICAL_CODE)
diff --git a/test/test_main.py b/test/test_main.py
index 47d77c7..a531af7 100644
--- a/test/test_main.py
+++ b/test/test_main.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ from check_http_json import main
 
 
 class MockResponse():
-    def __init__(self, status_code=200, content='{}'):
+    def __init__(self, status_code=200, content='{"foo": "bar"}'):
         self.status_code = status_code
         self.content = content