“Homeland” is giving fans a double dose of CIA espionage when it returns for its fourth season this fall. Showtime announced that its Claire Danes-led thriller will air the first two episodes of the season back-to-back on October 5 at 9/8c.
Additionally, Showtime’s newest drama series “The Affair” has been bumped up and will premiere on October 12.
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Heading into its fourth go around, “Homeland” is a stronger player than ever for the network. The third season finale earned the highest ratings in the history of the series, with 2.4 million tuning in for its initial 9 p.m. viewing and 2.9 million viewers overall for the night.
“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, EVP of Original Programming, at Showtime, in a statement.
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Season 4 of “Homeland” was shot entirely on location in South Africa – subbing for Pakistan – and will follow Carrie [Danes] assigned to one of the most volatile and dangerous CIA stations in the Middle East where she is back on the front lines in the war on terror. Mandy Patinkin, Rupert Friend, Tracy Letts and Nazanin Boniadi are also returning. After losing Damien Lewis’ Nicholas Brody, the show has added a substantial number of new cast members including Corey Stoll, Suraj Sharma and Laila Robins.
Produced by Fox 21, the series was developed for American television by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon, and based on the original Israeli series Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff.
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“The Affair,” starring Dominic West, Ruth Wilson, Joshua Jackson and Maura Tierney, is currently in production and follows the emotional and psychological effects of an extramarital affair on two marriages. Sarah Treem and Hagai Levy created the series. They first worked together on the American adaption of Levi’s show “In Treatment.” Treem and Levi will both serve as executive producers, along with executive producer and director Jeffrey Reiner and executive producer Eric Overmyer.