diff --git a/packages/core/lib/src/internal/ops/tag_table.dart b/packages/core/lib/src/internal/ops/tag_table.dart
index 6b6c11697..d1179641d 100644
--- a/packages/core/lib/src/internal/ops/tag_table.dart
+++ b/packages/core/lib/src/internal/ops/tag_table.dart
@@ -274,18 +274,18 @@ class _TagTableRow {
     op = BuildOp(onChild: onChild);
     _cellOp = BuildOp(
       onWidgets: (cellMeta, widgets) {
-        final column = parent.wf.buildColumnPlaceholder(cellMeta, widgets);
-        if (column == null) return [];
+        final child =
+            parent.wf.buildColumnPlaceholder(cellMeta, widgets) ?? widget0;
 
         final attributes = cellMeta.element.attributes;
         row.cells.add(_TagTableDataCell(
           cellMeta,
-          child: column,
+          child: child,
           colspan: tryParseIntFromMap(attributes, kAttributeColspan) ?? 1,
           rowspan: tryParseIntFromMap(attributes, kAttributeRowspan) ?? 1,
         ));
 
-        return [column];
+        return [child];
       },
       priority: BuildOp.kPriorityMax,
     );
diff --git a/packages/core/test/tag_table_test.dart b/packages/core/test/tag_table_test.dart
index ee83f9ef2..7bd0f6191 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/tag_table_test.dart
+++ b/packages/core/test/tag_table_test.dart
@@ -725,10 +725,24 @@ void main() async {
       expect(explained, equals('[HtmlTable:children=${_richtext('Bar')}]'));
     });
 
-    testWidgets('#80: empty TD', (WidgetTester tester) async {
-      final html = '<table><tr><td></td></tr></table>';
-      final explained = await explain(tester, html);
-      expect(explained, equals('[widget0]'));
+    testWidgets('empty TD (#494)', (WidgetTester tester) async {
+      final html =
+          '<table><tbody><tr><td></td><td>Foo</td></tr></tbody></table>';
+      final explained = await explain(tester, html, useExplainer: false);
+      expect(
+          explained,
+          equals('TshWidget\n'
+              '└WidgetPlaceholder<BuildMetadata>(BuildMetadata($html))\n'
+              ' └HtmlTable(borderSpacing: 2.0)\n'
+              '  ├HtmlTableCell(columnStart: 0, rowStart: 0)\n'
+              '  │└SizedBox.shrink()\n'
+              '  └HtmlTableCell(columnStart: 1, rowStart: 0)\n'
+              '   └WidgetPlaceholder<BuildTree>(BuildTree#0 tsb#1(parent=#2):\n'
+              '    │  "Foo"\n'
+              '    │)\n'
+              '    └Align(alignment: centerLeft)\n'
+              '     └Padding(padding: all(1.0))\n'
+              '      └RichText(text: "Foo")\n\n'));
     });
 
     testWidgets('TD display:none', (WidgetTester tester) async {