Networks Didn’t Cut Into the Games Much : Television: Viewers were kept up to date on the latest in the Persian Gulf War.

As Iraq launched missiles at a major allied military base in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, TV stuck with the NFL.

Although both NBC and CBS took several breaks during action to bring viewers quick news flashes from the Persian Gulf, the two networks stayed with their conference championship games.

NBC took its first news break during the Raiders-Buffalo Bills game at the end of the first quarter. NBC left the game three more times before halftime, when it made its first detailed Gulf report, more than 15 minutes after first word of the Iraqi missile attack.

CBS took its first news break late in the first quarter of the NFC championship game and cut away again late in the second quarter to report that more Scud missiles had been launched by Iraq. CBS, too, made a more detailed report at halftime.

With the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers tied, 3-3, CBS was off for about two minutes starting at 1:48 p.m. PST. Referees at Candlestick Park held up play during the break, and CBS lost just one play when Dan Rather took over for Pat Summerall and John Madden again for about a minute at 2:08.

It was first reported before 11 a.m. that U.S. forces at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, fired Patriot missiles to intercept the first of the incoming Iraqi Scuds. NBC’s halftime show began at 11:16. After brief remarks by NBC sports commentator Bob Costas at the start of halftime, the network switched to Tom Brokaw and a war report.

“News was given all the time they asked for,” NBC spokesman Ed Markey said, adding there was no discussion of leaving the football game entirely in favor of Gulf news.

Ironically, when NBC went to the news report, local programming was being shown on both CBS and ABC. NBC beat both of them to Gulf news.

“Whenever there is a breaking story anywhere in the Middle East, NBC will have it for you,” Brokaw said as he returned the network to football announcers Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh.

Both announcing teams made few references to the war. The exception was Summerall, and it wasn’t his fault.

“If you thought you’d heard all there is to hear about Saddam Hussein, you haven’t,” Summerall said, reading a “60 Minutes” promo that was written for him.

Some fans wore headsets to monitor the news on radio.

“I’ve had season tickets for 15 years, and it seems like it took forever to get this far,” Buffalo fan Mike Poole said. “I did some grocery shopping yesterday, a few other things just to get away from all the news, but I put these on because I still feel like I’ve got to stay in touch.”