HARTFORD, Conn. -- Channel 3 Eyewitness News will produce and broadcast a debate between the five candidates in the race for Connecticut's hotly contested U.S. Senate seat.

The debate -- the only scheduled face-to-face meeting of all five candidates -- will be held at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford. The hour-long debate will be broadcast on WFSB-TV-DT Channel 3 on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.

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Veteran CBS News anchor and Washington reporter Bob Schieffer will moderate the debate, which will include U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger, Green Party nominee Ralph Ferrucci and Timothy Knibbs of the Concerned Citizens Party.

"We are excited to give people in Connecticut a chance to hear what the all candidates have to say," said Klarn DePalma, Vice President and General Manager of WFSB-TV. "Our commitment is to deliver news and information to viewers in Connecticut, this commercial-free event is part of that public service."

Following the broadcast, the debate will be accessible on WFSB.com and will be re-broadcast on Sunday morning, Oct. 22 at 11 a.m.

Channel 3 is also airing a series of debates between the candidates for the U.S. House on its Sunday morning "Face The State" program, which can be seen through the November election on WFSB.com's Campaign 2006 special coverage.

Schieffer has covered Washington for CBS News for more than 30 years and is one of the few broadcast or print journalists to have covered all four major beats in the nation's capital -- the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill. He has been chief Washington correspondent since 1982 and congressional correspondent since 1989 and has covered every presidential campaign and been a floor reporter at all of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions since 1972. He began anchoring Face The Nation in May 1991.

The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts has been host to a number of high profile political events since it opened in 1930, including a 1996 Presidential Debate between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.

Stay with WFSB.com and Channel 3 Eyewitness News for the latest Campaign 2006 updates.