diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
index 4bc62cdc4a541..4eb8d7ff0d9f9 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/commands.scala
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ case class ExplainCommand(
       } else {
         queryExecution.simpleString
       }
-    outputString.split("\n").map(Row(_))
+    Seq(Row(outputString))
   } catch { case cause: TreeNodeException[_] =>
     ("Error occurred during query planning: \n" + cause.getMessage).split("\n").map(Row(_))
   }
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
index 58259060bf09f..5450368b88914 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/execution/HiveQuerySuite.scala
@@ -707,7 +707,7 @@ class HiveQuerySuite extends HiveComparisonTest with BeforeAndAfter {
 
   def isExplanation(result: DataFrame): Boolean = {
     val explanation = result.select('plan).collect().map { case Row(plan: String) => plan }
-    explanation.contains("== Physical Plan ==")
+    explanation.head.startsWith("== Physical Plan ==")
   }
 
   test("SPARK-1704: Explain commands as a DataFrame") {