diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 832d3f6a99e..8b38cebce6f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -296,6 +296,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v8.8.1\...main[Check the HEAD diff]
 - Add new metricset cluster for the vSphere module. {pull}40536[40536]
 - Disable event normalization for netflow input {pull}40635[40635]
 - Allow attribute selection in the Active Directory entity analytics provider. {issue}40482[40482] {pull}40662[40662]
+- Improve error quality when CEL program does not correctly return an events array. {pull}40580[40580]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/x-pack/filebeat/input/cel/input.go b/x-pack/filebeat/input/cel/input.go
index 99d5cfad788..2096383de39 100644
--- a/x-pack/filebeat/input/cel/input.go
+++ b/x-pack/filebeat/input/cel/input.go
@@ -366,9 +366,7 @@ func (i input) run(env v2.Context, src *source, cursor map[string]interface{}, p
 
 			e, ok := state["events"]
 			if !ok {
-				log.Error("unexpected missing events array from evaluation")
-				env.UpdateStatus(status.Degraded, "unexpected missing events array from evaluation")
-				isDegraded = true
+				return errors.New("unexpected missing events array from evaluation")
 			}
 			var events []interface{}
 			switch e := e.(type) {