diff --git a/.circleci/prepare.sh b/.circleci/prepare.sh
index dfd3aeef1..083c6d19d 100644
--- a/.circleci/prepare.sh
+++ b/.circleci/prepare.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 $PYTHON --version
 $PYTHON -m pip --version
-$PYTHON -m pip install -q --user --ignore-installed --upgrade virtualenv
+$PYTHON -m pip install -q --user --ignore-installed --upgrade "virtualenv<20"
 $PYTHON -m virtualenv -p $PYTHON venv
 venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
 venv/bin/python -m pip freeze
diff --git a/cibuildwheel/macos.py b/cibuildwheel/macos.py
index 6185070f6..304e594a1 100644
--- a/cibuildwheel/macos.py
+++ b/cibuildwheel/macos.py
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ def call(args, env=None, cwd=None, shell=False):
         if test_command:
             # set up a virtual environment to install and test from, to make sure
             # there are no dependencies that were pulled in at build time.
-            call(['pip', 'install', 'virtualenv'], env=env)
+            call(['pip', 'install', 'virtualenv<20'], env=env)
             venv_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
             call(['python', '-m', 'virtualenv', venv_dir], env=env)