Comparison of American football and rugby union
A rugby union game is divided into two halves of 40 minutes (or shorter for lower-grade games, and breaks given halfway through each half if playing conditions are considered to be extreme) separated by a half time period of up to 15 minutes in an international match. Most notably, a rugby union game will continue after the scheduled end of a half (half-time or full-time) until the ball becomes dead - any occurrence that would have play restart with a scrum or lineout, or when a team scores. This has led to some "nail-biting" finishes where teams losing by only a small margin work their way towards scoring, and games can go on several minutes over time. Something similar can occur at the end of either half in American football, though usually for only a few seconds of additional time, because a play that begins before the half expires continues until the ball is dead regardless of whether there is any time left on the clock. In both sports, the clock is also stopped during substitutions and for injuries, so the referee does not need to add stoppage time as is done in soccer/Association football. American football games are made up of four quarters of 15 minutes each (less at the high school and youth levels), but the clock stops and starts according to specific rules, so that a 15-minute quarter lasts much longer.
Football Night in America
In the third segment, the studio team moved to a screening room, in which highlights of the daytime games were reviewed. "Football Night in America" is the only pre-game show that the NFL allows to carry long-form highlights (running up to three minutes, twice as long as the usual allowance). Because of Game 2 of the 2006 World Series, and the preference that no NFL game competes against the Major League Baseball championship series, a one-hour edition aired from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on October 22. Additionally, as the NFL spurned Christmas Eve contests (a policy that was revoked in 2007), another one-hour show aired on December 24.