 <p>In that context <code>$data</code> appears to be just a text. Probably you want <a href="http://knockoutjs.com/documentation/text-binding.html" rel="nofollow">text binding</a> like:</p> <pre><code>&lt;span data-bind="text: $data"&gt;&lt;/span&gt; </code></pre> <p><a href="http://jsfiddle.net/bkdsuqax/1/" rel="nofollow">Jsfiddle</a></p>