diff --git a/internal/services/search.go b/internal/services/search.go
index 9f2aa22..2e41fba 100644
--- a/internal/services/search.go
+++ b/internal/services/search.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"context"
 	"strings"
 
+	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
 	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5/pgtype"
 )
 
@@ -208,3 +209,15 @@ func (s *SearchService) SearchFieldValues(ctx context.Context, params FieldSearc
 		return []FieldValue{}, nil
 	}
 }
+
+// ExecuteSearch performs search and returns results with count
+// Shared between JSON endpoint and HTML rendering
+func (s *SearchService) ExecuteSearch(ctx context.Context, params SearchParams) ([]database.SearchMediaItemsUnifiedRow, int, error) {
+	results, err := s.SearchMediaItemsUnified(ctx, params)
+	if err != nil && err != pgx.ErrNoRows {
+		return nil, 0, err
+	}
+
+	count := len(results)
+	return results, count, nil
+}