COLUMBIA - Jim DeMint and Inez Tenenbaum will face each other in televised debates six times in October, including once on NBC's Sunday morning news program, "Meet the Press."

The Republican and Democratic U.S. Senate nominees have committed to the schedule of debates after more than a month of hand-wringing about when and where to meet.

The two candidates will debate six times, beginning Oct. 3 in Charleston and ending Oct. 25 in Myrtle Beach.

An AARP debate Sept. 27 has been canceled.

Tenenbaum, the state education superintendent, had confirmed her attendance, but DeMint's campaign said the three-term congressman had never committed to the event.

Tenenbaum's campaign still is not confident all six debates will actually happen, fearing DeMint will cancel them.

Tenenbaum spokeswoman Kay Packett said DeMint originally proposed a series of radio debates and then would not commit to dates.

DeMint, Packett said, is "bailing" on debates. "They've determined that it just gives us visibility for them to debate." she said.

Not so, said DeMint spokesman spokeswoman Kara Borie. "It's ludicrous for them to say we don't want to debate," Borie said.

"We've committed to six televised debates.

"We've agreed to more debates than Alex Sanders and Lindsey Graham did, and frankly, I would contest that is more than any other Senate candidates in our state have done."

Sanders and Graham debated five times during their 2002 U.S. Senate campaign, which Graham, a Republican, won.

As for the AARP debate, Borie said the organization called the campaign before DeMint was the party's nominee and suggested a date.

"We told them they were jumping to conclusions," Borie said.

AARP later called back with the Sept. 27 date, but DeMint already had a fund-raiser scheduled that night in Greenville.

But AARP state director Jane Wiley said her group had been in touch with DeMint's campaign since March.

"We had been in touch with the campaign and there was internal communications error on their end," Wiley said.