Help with echo and sed

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I am using GNU sed but this does not output "what". Why?

HEY=$(echo "hey 70.70.70.70:21 what: " | sed -nr 's/.*(70.70.70.70\|71.71.71.71):(21\|22\|115\|443\|989\|990) (.*):.*/\3/p')
echo $HEY
2 
$
$ x=$(echo "hey 70.70.70.70:21 what: " | sed -nr 's/.*(70.70.70.70|71.71.71.71):(21|22|115|443|989|990) (.*):.*/\3/p')
$
$ echo $x
what
$
$

tyler_durden

3

Thank you Mr. Pitt. I wondered why they were escaped! :b: