diff --git a/hack/release_notes.sh b/hack/release_notes.sh
index c85b64b951..ac60e05107 100755
--- a/hack/release_notes.sh
+++ b/hack/release_notes.sh
@@ -56,8 +56,11 @@ git log "$recent".. --format="%aN" --reverse | sort | uniq | awk '{printf "- %s\
 echo ""
 echo "Thank you to our PR reviewers for this release!"
 echo ""
-"${DIR}/pullsheet" reviews --since "$recent_date" --repos kubernetes/minikube --token-path $DIR/gh_token.txt | awk -F ',' 'function cmp_value_order(i1,v1,i2,v2){ return v1 < v2 } NR>1{arr[$4] += $6 + $7}END{PROCINFO["sorted_in"] = "cmp_value_order"; for (a in arr) printf "- %s (%d comments)\n", a, arr[a]}'
+AWK_FORMAT_ITEM='{printf "- %s (%d comments)\n", $2, $1}'
+AWK_REVIEW_COMMENTS='NR>1{arr[$4] += $6 + $7}END{for (a in arr) printf "%d %s\n", arr[a], a}'
+"${DIR}/pullsheet" reviews --since "$recent_date" --repos kubernetes/minikube --token-path $DIR/gh_token.txt | awk -F ',' "$AWK_REVIEW_COMMENTS" | sort -k1nr -k2d  | awk -F ' ' "$AWK_FORMAT_ITEM"
 echo ""
 echo "Thank you to our triage members for this release!"
 echo ""
-"${DIR}/pullsheet" issue-comments --since "$recent_date" --repos kubernetes/minikube --token-path $DIR/gh_token.txt | awk -F ',' 'function cmp_value_order(i1,v1,i2,v2){ return v1 < v2 } NR>1{arr[$4] += $7}END{PROCINFO["sorted_in"] = "cmp_value_order"; for (a in arr) printf "- %s (%d comments)\n", a, arr[a]}' | head -n 5
+AWK_ISSUE_COMMENTS='NR>1{arr[$4] += $7}END{for (a in arr) printf "%d %s\n", arr[a], a}'
+"${DIR}/pullsheet" issue-comments --since "$recent_date" --repos kubernetes/minikube --token-path $DIR/gh_token.txt | awk -F ',' "$AWK_ISSUE_COMMENTS" | sort -k1nr -k2d  | awk -F ' ' "$AWK_FORMAT_ITEM" | head -n 5