diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
index 966a94fa8200bb189b6b2d3c5c884130c2344b9c..982b98ee639edd3f0b199782d89f097cb253b8bc 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-ftrace.c
@@ -231,6 +231,8 @@ static int __cmd_ftrace(struct perf_ftrace *ftrace, int argc, const char **argv)
 		goto out_reset;
 	}
 
+	setup_pager();
+
 	trace_file = get_tracing_file("trace_pipe");
 	if (!trace_file) {
 		pr_err("failed to open trace_pipe\n");
@@ -254,8 +256,6 @@ static int __cmd_ftrace(struct perf_ftrace *ftrace, int argc, const char **argv)
 		goto out_close_fd;
 	}
 
-	setup_pager();
-
 	perf_evlist__start_workload(ftrace->evlist);
 
 	while (!done) {