os->evsel->priv != os->evsel->evlist->selected->priv)
                return;
 
-       if (!valid_only_metric(unit) && !config->json_output)
+       if (!valid_only_metric(unit))
                return;
        unit = fixunit(tbuf, os->evsel, unit);
 
        if (config->json_output)
-               fprintf(os->fh, "\"unit\" : \"%s\"", unit);
+               fprintf(os->fh, "{\"unit\" : \"%s\"}", unit);
        else if (config->csv_output)
                fprintf(os->fh, "%s%s", unit, config->csv_sep);
        else
                .new_line = new_line_metric,
                .force_header = true,
        };
-       bool first = true;
-
-       if (config->json_output && !config->interval)
-               fprintf(config->output, "{");
 
        if (prefix && !config->json_output)
                fprintf(config->output, "%s", prefix);
        evlist__for_each_entry(evlist, counter) {
                os.evsel = counter;
 
-               if (!first && config->json_output)
-                       fprintf(config->output, ", ");
-               first = false;
-
                perf_stat__print_shadow_stats(config, counter, 0,
                                              0,
                                              &out,
                                              &config->metric_events,
                                              &rt_stat);
        }
-       if (config->json_output)
-               fprintf(config->output, "}");
        fputc('\n', config->output);
 }
 
                }
        }
 
-       if ((num_print_interval == 0 || config->interval_clear)
-                        && metric_only && !config->json_output)
+       if ((num_print_interval == 0 || config->interval_clear) && metric_only)
                print_metric_headers(config, evlist, " ", true);
-       if ((num_print_interval == 0 || config->interval_clear)
-                        && metric_only && config->json_output) {
-               fprintf(output, "{");
-               print_metric_headers(config, evlist, " ", true);
-       }
        if (++num_print_interval == 25)
                num_print_interval = 0;
 }