Brian Lowry has been a media columnist and critic for CNN since April 2016. Before that spent 12 years as a columnist and chief TV critic at Variety, preceded by seven years at the Los Angeles Times as a reporter and columnist covering the television industry. Lowry has been a contributor to National Public Radio and Foxsports.com and is the former co-host of "Square Off," a weekly talk program about the television business on TV Guide Network. He is also the author of two authorized companion guides to the Fox series “The X-Files." Lowry graduated from UCLA.