Showtime Doubles Down with 'Homeland' Season Four Debut

Showtime has scheduled the premiere of Homeland's fourth season for October 5, with back-to-back episodes airing beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT. 

Earlier this year, the network moved production from Homeland's home base in Charlotte, N.C. to Cape Town, South Africa. The new season will focus on the assignment of Claire Danes' character Carrie Mathison to a CIA station in a tumultuous Middle Eastern region. Season three ended with the death of Damian Lewis's character Nicholas Brody, as well as Claire's discovery that she was pregnant with his child. 

Showtime also shifted the premiere date of its forthcoming drama series The Affair to follow a new episode Homeland the next week at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

"Once we decided to premiere Homeland with a double episode, it made sense to use the momentum of that event to launch our newest series, The Affair, the very next week on October 12th," said Gary Levine, executive vice president, Original Programming, Showtime Networks, in a statement. 

The Affair stars Dominic West and Ruth Wilson as a couple from the Hamptons struggling to reconcile problems in their marriage. The series was created by Sarah Treem and Hagai Levy, who also serve as executive producers along with Jeffrey Reiner and Eric Overmyer. Reiner also directs the series.