diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/components/data_grid/common.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/components/data_grid/common.ts
index 48a0a0c9ab12..909f1ec9ca89 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/components/data_grid/common.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/components/data_grid/common.ts
@@ -415,11 +415,20 @@ export const showDataGridColumnChartErrorMessageToast = (
 // helper function to transform { [key]: [val] } => { [key]: val }
 // for when `fields` is used in es.search since response is always an array of values
 // since response always returns an array of values for each field
-export const getProcessedFields = (originalObj: object) => {
+export const getProcessedFields = (originalObj: object, omitBy?: (key: string) => boolean) => {
   const obj: { [key: string]: any } = { ...originalObj };
   for (const key of Object.keys(obj)) {
-    if (Array.isArray(obj[key]) && obj[key].length === 1) {
-      obj[key] = obj[key][0];
+    // if no conditional is included, process everything
+    if (omitBy === undefined) {
+      if (Array.isArray(obj[key]) && obj[key].length === 1) {
+        obj[key] = obj[key][0];
+      }
+    } else {
+      // else only process the fields for things users don't want to omit
+      if (omitBy(key) === false)
+        if (Array.isArray(obj[key]) && obj[key].length === 1) {
+          obj[key] = obj[key][0];
+        }
     }
   }
   return obj;
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/data_frame_analytics/common/get_index_data.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/data_frame_analytics/common/get_index_data.ts
index 85f222109d40..0f5f48240326 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/data_frame_analytics/common/get_index_data.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/data_frame_analytics/common/get_index_data.ts
@@ -63,7 +63,13 @@ export const getIndexData = async (
 
       if (!options.didCancel) {
         setRowCount(resp.hits.total.value);
-        setTableItems(resp.hits.hits.map((d) => getProcessedFields(d.fields)));
+        setTableItems(
+          resp.hits.hits.map((d) =>
+            getProcessedFields(d.fields, (key: string) =>
+              key.startsWith(`${jobConfig.dest.results_field}.feature_importance`)
+            )
+          )
+        );
         setStatus(INDEX_STATUS.LOADED);
       }
     } catch (e) {