Raise a large glass of white wine and drink up, Homeland Fanatics.

Showtime has announced the premiere date for Season 4, along with a nice surprise for fans:

Carrie Matheson will return to our lives with back-to-back episodes on Sunday, October 5.

Homeland Season 4 Trailer

["T]here is such strong anticipation for the start of Season 4 that we wanted to give Homeland fans an extra generous helping of Carrie and company,” said Showtime EVP Gary Levine said in a statement. “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.”

Indeed, The Affair — an upcoming relationship drama starring Dominic West (The Wire), Ruth Wilson (Luther), Maura Tierney (ER) and Joshua Jackson (Fringe) — will now debut on Sunday, October 12, at 10/9c.

Homeland Season 4, meanwhile, will be filmed on location in South Africa and Carrie assigned to one of the most volatile and dangerous CIA stations in the Middle East.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.