For Sunday talk shows, thriving in the D.C. ratings — although clearly trumped in size by New York — provides bragging rights over which show reaches more political insiders.

But more importantly, since the Sunday shows’ objective is not only to reflect on the past week’s events but to get political leaders to break news and move the conversation forward in the newspapers and the blogosphere on Monday morning, it’s essential for both leading Republicans and leading Democrats to reach members of D.C.’s chattering class.

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Despite missing some candidates from the other side of the aisle, Wallace — along with the Fox public relations team — will happily boast that in the D.C. market, there have been big gains.

That’s been evident in the past month as influential media blogs like FishbowlDC and TVNewser seized upon the November ratings — the latter declaring in a headline “Washington Likes Wallace.”

“I think we’re doing a variety of things to distinguish ourselves from the other shows, and Washington, especially, seems to be noticing the difference,” Wallace said.

Andrew Tyndall, an independent television news analyst, noticed increased attention recently being paid to Wallace’s D.C. numbers.

“It’s sort of funny publicity they’re putting it out,” Tyndall said. “The way they’re spinning it is that inside the Beltway he’s doing well.

“You could spin it the other way,” he added. “How come no one’s watching him in the rest of the country?”