diff --git a/devscripts/release.sh b/devscripts/release.sh
index bb3180b26c..561499ccb4 100755
--- a/devscripts/release.sh
+++ b/devscripts/release.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ make clean
 nosetests --with-coverage --cover-package=youtube_dl --cover-html test || exit 1
 
 echo "\n### Changing version in version.py..."
-sed -i~ "s/__version__ = '.*'/__version__ = '$version'/" youtube_dl/version.py
+sed -i "s/__version__ = '.*'/__version__ = '$version'/" youtube_dl/version.py
 
 echo "\n### Committing CHANGELOG README.md and youtube_dl/version.py..."
 make README.md