diff --git a/utils/lit/lit/ProgressBar.py b/utils/lit/lit/ProgressBar.py
index 0454ba29a43..2481bdfefa9 100644
--- a/utils/lit/lit/ProgressBar.py
+++ b/utils/lit/lit/ProgressBar.py
@@ -135,7 +135,11 @@ class TerminalController:
         # For any modern terminal, we should be able to just ignore
         # these, so strip them out.
         import curses
-        cap = curses.tigetstr(cap_name) or ''
+        cap = curses.tigetstr(cap_name)
+        if cap is None:
+            cap = ''
+        else:
+            cap = cap.decode('ascii')
         return re.sub(r'\$<\d+>[/*]?', '', cap)
 
     def render(self, template):
diff --git a/utils/lit/lit/TestFormats.py b/utils/lit/lit/TestFormats.py
index 9e0c7a0be7a..9c43a216b2c 100644
--- a/utils/lit/lit/TestFormats.py
+++ b/utils/lit/lit/TestFormats.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ class GoogleTest(object):
         try:
             lines = lit.Util.capture([path, '--gtest_list_tests'],
                                      env=localConfig.environment)
+            lines = lines.decode('ascii')
             if kIsWindows:
               lines = lines.replace('\r', '')
             lines = lines.split('\n')