diff --git a/haystack/preview/components/preprocessors/text_document_splitter.py b/haystack/preview/components/preprocessors/text_document_splitter.py
index f9f748b9d..76ede3da2 100644
--- a/haystack/preview/components/preprocessors/text_document_splitter.py
+++ b/haystack/preview/components/preprocessors/text_document_splitter.py
@@ -44,8 +44,9 @@ class TextDocumentSplitter:
         :return: A list of documents with the split texts.
         """
 
-        if not documents or not isinstance(documents, list) or not isinstance(documents[0], Document):
+        if not isinstance(documents, list) or (documents and not isinstance(documents[0], Document)):
             raise TypeError("TextDocumentSplitter expects a List of Documents as input.")
+
         split_docs = []
         for doc in documents:
             if doc.text is None:
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/fix-text-splitter-65870db474338749.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/fix-text-splitter-65870db474338749.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6633117e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/fix-text-splitter-65870db474338749.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+preview:
+  - Fix TextDocumentSplitter failing when run with an empty list
diff --git a/test/preview/components/preprocessors/test_text_document_splitter.py b/test/preview/components/preprocessors/test_text_document_splitter.py
index 900842333..ac55e3709 100644
--- a/test/preview/components/preprocessors/test_text_document_splitter.py
+++ b/test/preview/components/preprocessors/test_text_document_splitter.py
@@ -21,9 +21,9 @@ class TestTextDocumentSplitter:
 
     @pytest.mark.unit
     def test_empty_list(self):
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="TextDocumentSplitter expects a List of Documents as input."):
-            splitter = TextDocumentSplitter()
-            splitter.run(documents=[])
+        splitter = TextDocumentSplitter()
+        res = splitter.run(documents=[])
+        assert res == {"documents": []}
 
     @pytest.mark.unit
     def test_unsupported_split_by(self):