In its original American NBC broadcast on March 11, 2010, "The Possum" was seen by 4.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Although it was the same number of viewers as last week's episode, "Woman of the Year", "The Possum" had a 2.1 rating/6 share among viewers between ages 18 and 49, a nine percent drop from the previous episode. In the 9 p.m. timeslot on March 11, "Parks and Recreation" was outperformed by "American Idol" on Fox, which drew 20.46 million viewers, and "" on CBS, which drew 12.17 million viewers. "The Possum" outperformed a repeat of "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC, which drew 4.5 million viewers, and "The Vampire Diaries" on The CW, which drew 1.37 million viewers.