diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseries_search_service.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseries_search_service.ts
index 044d166ca5efa1..05adc2355ef3c6 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseries_search_service.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseries_search_service.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
  */
 
 import { each, find, get, filter } from 'lodash';
+import type { ES_AGGREGATION } from '@kbn/ml-anomaly-utils';
 
 import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
 import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';
@@ -15,7 +16,6 @@ import {
   isModelPlotChartableForDetector,
   isModelPlotEnabled,
 } from '../../../common/util/job_utils';
-// @ts-ignore
 import { buildConfigFromDetector } from '../util/chart_config_builder';
 import { mlResultsService } from '../services/results_service';
 import { ModelPlotOutput } from '../services/results_service/result_service_rx';
@@ -113,29 +113,48 @@ function getMetricData(
   }
 }
 
-// Builds chart detail information (charting function description and entity counts) used
-// in the title area of the time series chart.
-// Queries Elasticsearch if necessary to obtain the distinct count of entities
-// for which data is being plotted.
+interface TimeSeriesExplorerChartDetails {
+  success: boolean;
+  results: {
+    functionLabel: string | null;
+    entityData: { count?: number; entities: Array<{ fieldName: string; cardinality?: number }> };
+  };
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds chart detail information (charting function description and entity counts) used
+ * in the title area of the time series chart.
+ * Queries Elasticsearch if necessary to obtain the distinct count of entities
+ * for which data is being plotted.
+ * @param job Job config info
+ * @param detectorIndex The index of the detector in the job config
+ * @param entityFields Array of field name - field value pairs
+ * @param earliestMs Earliest timestamp in milliseconds
+ * @param latestMs Latest timestamp in milliseconds
+ * @param metricFunctionDescription The underlying function (min, max, avg) for "metric" detector type
+ * @returns chart data to plot for Single Metric Viewer/Time series explorer
+ */
 function getChartDetails(
   job: Job,
   detectorIndex: number,
-  entityFields: any[],
+  entityFields: MlEntityField[],
   earliestMs: number,
-  latestMs: number
+  latestMs: number,
+  metricFunctionDescription?: ES_AGGREGATION
 ) {
   return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
-    const obj: any = {
+    const obj: TimeSeriesExplorerChartDetails = {
       success: true,
       results: { functionLabel: '', entityData: { entities: [] } },
     };
 
-    const chartConfig = buildConfigFromDetector(job, detectorIndex);
+    const chartConfig = buildConfigFromDetector(job, detectorIndex, metricFunctionDescription);
+
     let functionLabel: string | null = chartConfig.metricFunction;
     if (chartConfig.metricFieldName !== undefined) {
-      functionLabel += ' ';
-      functionLabel += chartConfig.metricFieldName;
+      functionLabel += ` ${chartConfig.metricFieldName}`;
     }
+
     obj.results.functionLabel = functionLabel;
 
     const blankEntityFields = filter(entityFields, (entity) => {
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseriesexplorer.js b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseriesexplorer.js
index 757f4cb06543e4..89fca7147297c9 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseriesexplorer.js
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/timeseriesexplorer/timeseriesexplorer.js
@@ -436,17 +436,17 @@ export class TimeSeriesExplorer extends React.Component {
         chartDataError: undefined,
         ...(fullRefresh
           ? {
-              chartDetails: undefined,
-              contextChartData: undefined,
-              contextForecastData: undefined,
-              focusChartData: undefined,
-              focusForecastData: undefined,
-              modelPlotEnabled:
-                isModelPlotChartableForDetector(currentSelectedJob, selectedDetectorIndex) &&
-                isModelPlotEnabled(currentSelectedJob, selectedDetectorIndex, entityControls),
-              hasResults: false,
-              dataNotChartable: false,
-            }
+            chartDetails: undefined,
+            contextChartData: undefined,
+            contextForecastData: undefined,
+            focusChartData: undefined,
+            focusForecastData: undefined,
+            modelPlotEnabled:
+              isModelPlotChartableForDetector(currentSelectedJob, selectedDetectorIndex) &&
+              isModelPlotEnabled(currentSelectedJob, selectedDetectorIndex, entityControls),
+            hasResults: false,
+            dataNotChartable: false,
+          }
           : {}),
       },
       () => {
@@ -607,7 +607,8 @@ export class TimeSeriesExplorer extends React.Component {
             detectorIndex,
             entityControls,
             searchBounds.min.valueOf(),
-            searchBounds.max.valueOf()
+            searchBounds.max.valueOf(),
+            this.props.functionDescription
           )
           .then((resp) => {
             stateUpdate.chartDetails = resp.results;
diff --git a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/util/chart_config_builder.ts b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/util/chart_config_builder.ts
index e9c322d30a6e56..c1057fc335e82c 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/util/chart_config_builder.ts
+++ b/x-pack/plugins/ml/public/application/util/chart_config_builder.ts
@@ -19,9 +19,19 @@ import { Job } from '../../../common/types/anomaly_detection_jobs';
 
 import { mlFunctionToESAggregation } from '../../../common/util/job_utils';
 
-// Builds the basic configuration to plot a chart of the source data
-// analyzed by the the detector at the given index from the specified ML job.
-export function buildConfigFromDetector(job: Job, detectorIndex: number) {
+/**
+ * Builds the basic configuration to plot a chart of the source data
+ * analyzed by the the detector at the given index from the specified ML job.
+ * @param job Job config info
+ * @param detectorIndex The index of the detector in the job config
+ * @param metricFunctionDescription The underlying function (min, max, avg) for "metric" detector type
+ * @returns
+ */
+export function buildConfigFromDetector(
+  job: Job,
+  detectorIndex: number,
+  metricFunctionDescription?: ES_AGGREGATION
+) {
   const analysisConfig = job.analysis_config;
   const detector = analysisConfig.detectors[detectorIndex];
 
@@ -38,6 +48,9 @@ export function buildConfigFromDetector(job: Job, detectorIndex: number) {
     datafeedConfig: job.datafeed_config!,
     summaryCountFieldName: job.analysis_config.summary_count_field_name,
   };
+  if (detector.function === ML_JOB_AGGREGATION.METRIC && metricFunctionDescription !== undefined) {
+    config.metricFunction = metricFunctionDescription;
+  }
 
   if (detector.field_name !== undefined) {
     config.metricFieldName = detector.field_name;