diff --git a/themes/rjorgenson/rjorgenson.theme.sh b/themes/rjorgenson/rjorgenson.theme.sh
index 5c0dbb8..2375657 100644
--- a/themes/rjorgenson/rjorgenson.theme.sh
+++ b/themes/rjorgenson/rjorgenson.theme.sh
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ function is_integer() { # helper function for todo-txt-count
 
 todo_txt_count() {
     if `hash todo.sh 2>&-`; then # is todo.sh installed
-        count=`todo.sh ls | egrep "TODO: [0-9]+ of ([0-9]+) tasks shown" | awk '{ print $4 }'`
+        count=$(todo.sh ls | egrep "TODO: [0-9]+ of ([0-9]+) tasks shown" | awk '{ print $4 }')
         if is_integer $count; then # did we get a sane answer back
             echo "${BRACKET_COLOR}[${STRING_COLOR}T:$count${BRACKET_COLOR}]$normal"
         fi