diff --git a/visidata/shell.py b/visidata/shell.py
index 7cad95ec..f1ebf9c1 100644
--- a/visidata/shell.py
+++ b/visidata/shell.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class ColumnShell(Column):
                     arg = shlex.quote(str(context[arg[1:]]))
                 args.append(arg)
 
-            p = subprocess.Popen([os.getenv('SHELL', 'bash'), '-c', shlex.join(args)],
+            p = subprocess.Popen([os.getenv('SHELL', 'sh'), '-c', shlex.join(args)],
                     stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
             return p.communicate()
         except Exception as e: