diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/specs/template_srv_specs.ts b/public/app/features/templating/specs/template_srv_specs.ts
index ca336e97ba3..af95b68cb7d 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/specs/template_srv_specs.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/specs/template_srv_specs.ts
@@ -150,6 +150,11 @@ describe('templateSrv', function() {
       expect(result).to.be('test,build=test2');
     });
 
+    it('multi value and distributed should render when not string', function() {
+      var result = _templateSrv.formatValue(['test'], 'distributed', { name: 'build' });
+      expect(result).to.be('test');
+    });
+
     it('slash should be properly escaped in regex format', function() {
       var result = _templateSrv.formatValue('Gi3/14', 'regex');
       expect(result).to.be('Gi3\\/14');
diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/templateSrv.js b/public/app/features/templating/templateSrv.js
index a41f5a9d0f3..de82be2cf66 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/templateSrv.js
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/templateSrv.js
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@ function (angular, _, kbn) {
           return value.join('|');
         }
         case "distributed": {
+          if (typeof value === 'string') {
+            return value;
+          }
           return this.distributeVariable(value, variable.name);
         }
         default:  {