America's Got Talent Back with a Big Bang

In its triumphant return after the 2008 Olympic Games, “America’s Got Talent” (7 p.m. Tuesday, NBC) offers up 10 of the top 40 contestants.

That much closer to the million dollar prize, they crank up the intensity.

“Wipeout” (7 p.m. Tuesday, ABC) is back with a paramedic, a professor, a fire dancer, a retired pilot, a professional surfer and a figure-skating coach taking on Butt-Kicker, Big Balls, Topple Towers, Donut Stack Swing, Teeter Totter and the Floating Block Maze.

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At the age of 10, Alexandra “Alex” Pyles has won 14 world titles, entered the National Blackbelt League’s Hall of Fame and accumulated a wall full of trophies. This week, she gets to show off her skills in mixed martial arts, including various forms of karate, on national television.

Alex is a quiet little girl with sandy blonde hair and a shy smile—and, based on the moves she demonstrated in the ring at her family’s gym earlier this week, the ability to kick my tail if she wanted to. She is one of the finalists on “America’s Got Talent,” NBC’s popular talent show. The series will begin its Los Angeles round of competition at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

“I decided to get into martial arts when I was a baby,” she said. “My dad was doing it, and I liked it. When I did it I felt really good.”

Her father, Dean Pyles, runs Elite Combat Martial Arts and Fitness in Galax, and she grew up watching him teach classes and enter competitions. “She’d run around punching and kicking and stuff,” Dean Pyles recalled. “By the time she was 3 she was doing splits and kicks and she did a demonstration…. People just went wild over it.”

At 5, she won her first trophy, which her father said “was 6 feet tall, and she wasn’t hardly 3 feet tall.”

She is a movie buff and is particularly fond of movies starring Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Sylvester Stallone. She describes “Rocky” as her all-time favorite film and hopes to be an action-film star when she grows up. She also likes fishing, swimming and bike riding. “She’s super-active,” her dad said.

So are her sisters: Whittany, 17; Chelsea, 13; and Hylea, 5. They all study martial arts, and they are looking forward to seeing their sister compete.

“I think it’s incredible,” Whittany said. “We even get to go out and see everything she sees.”

Despite the age difference, could Alex take Whittany in a fight? “Probably,” Whittany said with a laugh.

“I think it’s amazing,” Chelsea said. “I hope she wins it. No matter what, we’ll all benefit from it. She does really good at it. And, yeah, she could definitely whoop me. But I don’t want her to.”

“I love my sissy, and I hope she wins it,” said Hylea.

Last year, the family gathered each week to watch “America’s Got Talent,” an “American Idol"-like competition show that features singers and other performers, including puppeteer Terry Fator, last year’s winner.

“There’s a lot of talents and I like to see talent,” Alex said.

Plus, her skill at martial arts has an added benefit: “My talent can maybe save someone some day,” she said.

“She wants to show kids they can study martial arts and have fun, and also learn self-defense and get into shape,” Dean Pyles said. “She wanted to raise child-safety awareness. She’s real soft-hearted and real shy-seeming until you see her compete…. She just decided she wanted to help get the word out.”

“As soon as she saw the show last year, she said that’s what she wanted to do,” said her mother, Heather Pyles. “I just went and looked everything up on the Internet and started filling out papers.”

With help from sponsors, the family took Alex through the first rounds of auditions and went out to Las Vegas earlier this year, where she competed against about 200 acts.

She made the cut, and now she is one of 40 finalists who will show off their skills over the next few weeks. The competition will be shown Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Alex’s competition includes singers, impressionists, dancers, drummers, a magician and an Elvis impersonator. They compete before three celebrity judges, and then viewers vote for their favorites.

“America gets to narrow that down,” Dean Pyles said, “and we’re hoping we can get the support of the local area.”

The family flew to Los Angeles this week to prepare for Alex’s first round of competition, which will likely be on Tuesday’s episode.

The auditions, her mother said, were “extremely exciting and overwhelming.”

The experience, she said, has “just been fantastic ever since. It’s gotten better and better.”

When the auditions started, Alex said, “I was a little nervous. But I believed that I could do it and I was ready. I went and put everything I could into it.”

“America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC): The Olympics are over and now it’s almost time to award some medals on “America’s Got Talent.” The summer’s biggest hit returns with an episode that has 10 of the Top 40 acts hitting the stage to showcase their skills.

“World’s Funniest Commercials 2008” (9 p.m., TBS): Kevin Nealon and his wife, Susan Yeagley, are your hosts for the “World’s Funniest Commercials 2008.” These are those rare clever and hilarious ads that you don’t want to skim over with your DVR.

“Greek” (9 p.m., Oxygen): The freshmen’s devotion is put to the test when they learn if they have been accepted into their fraternities and sororities.

“The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency” (10 p.m., Oxygen): “The Agency” is back for its fourth season. But there are changes ahead in this reality show. Dickinson, the self-proclaimed “world’s first supermodel,” has a new business partner. A new business plan to move from commercial to high-fashion clients. New headquarters: no longer a Hollywood storefront but a mansion in the Hollywood hills, complete with a newly designed master bedroom decorated by brother-of-Madonna Christopher Ciccone. Finally, Dickinson has a new scheme for keeping her models-in-training in tow: They will reside in this mansion with her.