diff --git a/mesonbuild/cmake/executor.py b/mesonbuild/cmake/executor.py
index 66713a1e4..adc028c3e 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/cmake/executor.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/cmake/executor.py
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class CMakeExecutor:
                 msg += '\n\nOn Unix-like systems this is often caused by scripts that are not executable.'
             mlog.warning(msg)
             return None
-        cmvers = re.sub(r'\s*(cmake|cmake3) version\s*', '', out.split('\n')[0]).strip()
+        cmvers = re.search(r'(cmake|cmake3)\s*version\s*([\d.]+)', out).group(2)
         return cmvers
 
     def set_exec_mode(self, print_cmout: T.Optional[bool] = None, always_capture_stderr: T.Optional[bool] = None) -> None: