Looking Good at CNBC (Pretty, Too)

After her 1998 graduation, Burnett signed on as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. From that point on, doors just seemed to keep opening.

When Willow Bay, whom she recognized as a former Estee Lauder model, was hired as a CNN financial anchor, Burnett wrote to her and was hired as her assistant. After Burnett was promoted to a booker's job, Citigroup recruited her to help create an online financial news service. It was there -- "doing thousands of interviews that very few people watched," she says -- that Burnett honed her skills.

In 2003 she sent a tape to Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg's editor in chief, and was hired for its business channel, where she received several months of voice coaching. Two years later, CNBC offered Burnett the co-host job at "Squawk on the Street" and paired her with Haines, an acerbic veteran.

"We were like two dogs circling around," Burnett says of her initial encounters with the man she calls "an endearing curmudgeon."

"We hit it off immediately," Haines says. "She's very bright, funny. She's not a diva. She understands the markets. She works like a dog. It's just a ball to work with her."

Within months Burnett was given "Street Signs" and began making appearances on NBC, which have multiplied during the market's recent gyrations. "It's been an immense responsibility," she says. "We've been purveying facts rather than becoming part of the fear-mongering." Burnett and Bartiromo alternate weeks of daily live segments on "Today."

Since Haines and Burnett launched "Squawk on the Street," the show is up 44 percent in the ratings, to 326,000 viewers, and 144 percent in the key 25-to-54 age group. CNBC expanded it to two hours last month.

With her rapid-fire delivery and easy banter, Burnett is remarkably relaxed before the cameras. She claims to know nothing about putting on makeup -- causing a crisis when the makeup woman failed to show during a storm -- and has declined to join the legions of fake blondes, bowing briefly to network pressure to add highlights but deciding she preferred being a brunette.

As "Squawk" opens on this morning, Burnett asks whether the market is returning to normal, does the interview with the Thornburg executive and gets a one-minute warning before the opening bell.

"Look at that crowd," Haines teases. "They're going to start chanting any minute, 'Er-in! Er-in!' " They descend to the trading floor for the 9:30 opening.

Between interviews with market analysts, Burnett makes clear she's no financial guru, telling viewers that she has been "taking a beating" in small-cap funds. Burnett owns only index funds -- CNBC executives and editorial staffers are not allowed to trade individual stocks -- but neglected to adjust her portfolio during the market plunge.

She seems to subsist on little food, her sole intake before noon consisting of coffee and a bag of Sun-Maid dried apples, nibbled while Haines is doing the talking. And she admits that the torrid pace has left her exhausted.