diff --git a/pywb/apps/frontendapp.py b/pywb/apps/frontendapp.py
index c3ece2940..69382df2f 100644
--- a/pywb/apps/frontendapp.py
+++ b/pywb/apps/frontendapp.py
@@ -404,10 +404,12 @@ def serve_cdx(self, environ, coll='$root'):
         try:
             res = requests.get(cdx_url, stream=True)
 
+            status_line = '{} {}'.format(res.status_code, res.reason)
             content_type = res.headers.get('Content-Type')
 
             return WbResponse.bin_stream(StreamIter(res.raw),
-                                         content_type=content_type)
+                                         content_type=content_type,
+                                         status=status_line)
 
         except Exception as e:
             return WbResponse.text_response('Error: ' + str(e), status='400 Bad Request')
diff --git a/pywb/warcserver/basewarcserver.py b/pywb/warcserver/basewarcserver.py
index 0ef5f448e..f1d6b01b2 100644
--- a/pywb/warcserver/basewarcserver.py
+++ b/pywb/warcserver/basewarcserver.py
@@ -141,6 +141,9 @@ def send_error(self, errs, start_response,
             out_headers['ResErrors'] = res[0]
             message = message.encode('utf-8')
 
-        message = str(status) + ' ' + message
+        if isinstance(status, str):
+            message = status
+        else:
+            message = str(status) + ' ' + message
         start_response(message, list(out_headers.items()))
         return res