diff --git a/sickbeard/providers/hdtorrents.py b/sickbeard/providers/hdtorrents.py
index 73062435395af162e52d73536d1515bb0d6378ba..1989fbc43ea316b37ecc181a50c055dfd747a12e 100644
--- a/sickbeard/providers/hdtorrents.py
+++ b/sickbeard/providers/hdtorrents.py
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ class HDTorrentsProvider(generic.TorrentProvider):
 
     def _get_episode_search_strings(self, ep_obj, add_string=''):
         if not ep_obj:
-            return search_strings
+            return []
 
         search_strings = []
         for show_name in set(show_name_helpers.allPossibleShowNames(self.show)):