"You are up next" vs "You are next"

Question

I watch quiz shows on TV where teams compete and each member of a team has to answer a question when it is their turn.

On the show, the presenter wants each member of the team to come on the stage one at a time and asks each of them a different question. And the presenter calls the name of the next member of the team when it is their turn like this: "James, you are up next".

I understand by "up next" the presenter means "James, now it is your turn to come to stage and answer the next question."

But I wonder why does TV presenter say "UP NEXT", where simply "NEXT" would do?

Shortly, is there any difference between "you are next" and "you are up next"?

Regards,

Answer 1

American English has a tendency toward a certain overflow of prepositions (sometimes attached to the verb, sometimes without).

It's the same phenomenon as in phrases such as,

— Come on in (vs. "Come in")

— I am basing myself off of those findings. // He has weaned himself off of alcohol. (in both cases, "of" can be left out)

You can "take the dog for a walk" and "take the dog out for a walk"; these phrases are equivalent.

So there are a lot of parallel constructions like this; American English will generally have more of them than BrE. The choice is basically up to the speaker/user.

It comes down to what kind of phrases you've heard more often and have accustomed yourself to. We learn language (even our own, when we were babies/toddlers) by aping and repeating whole phrases, not just words. I find it useful to have a notebook where I don't just write down words from the language I'm learning, but whole phrases (including these cases of un-obvious, redundant use of prepositions).