diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
index c03ca5b31c..1f9cc73717 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py
@@ -3217,7 +3217,7 @@ class YoutubeSearchURLIE(YoutubeSearchBaseInfoExtractor):
     IE_DESC = 'YouTube.com search URLs'
     IE_NAME = 'youtube:search_url'
     _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?youtube\.com/results\?(.*?&)?(?:search_query|q)=(?P<query>[^&]+)(?:[&]|$)'
-    _SEARCH_DATA = r'window\[\"ytInitialData\"\]\W?=\W?({.*?});'
+    _SEARCH_DATA = r'(?:window\["ytInitialData"\]|ytInitialData)\W?=\W?({.*?});'
     _TESTS = [{
         'url': 'https://www.youtube.com/results?baz=bar&search_query=youtube-dl+test+video&filters=video&lclk=video',
         'playlist_mincount': 5,