Jeopardy Masters' James reveals his true feelings on Amy & Sam after their loss

 JEOPARDY! Masters' James Holzhauer has revealed his true feelings about competitors Amy Schneider and Sam Buttrey. 

Sam, 68, and Mattea, 24, were eliminated during the quarterfinal matches of the Masters tournament.  The self-proclaimed "game show villain" went against his staged nature and shared his personal experiences with the contestants online.

James, 38, kickstarted the series of tweets: "When my wife asked @Jeopardamy to participate in our fundraiser last year, Amy jumped at the chance to pay her own way to Las Vegas and volunteer. 

"It was my honor to share the Masters' stage with an inspiration, a phenomenal Jeopardy player, and an even better human." The Jeopardy! Masters star continued: "I had only briefly met @sam_buttrey prior to these tapings, but his charm and wit were immediately evident. 

Jeopardy! champ flaunts sacred family keepsake with jaw-dropping price tag "When he wasn’t busy winning America’s hearts, he was the only Masters' contestant to outperform me on the signaling device head-to-head (check the box scores!)"

He also promoted and shared the links to Amy's book, In the Form of a Question, and Sam's how-to guide called A Data Scientist's Guide to Acquiring, Cleaning, and Managing Data in R. Amy reshared his tweet and wrote: "James may play a villain on TV, but in real life, he’s a great guy, as enjoyable to be around as he is frustrating to play against. 

"And I mean that; if I didn’t actually like him, I just wouldn’t say anything about him at all." In the quarterfinal matches, Matt Amodio bested Sam and Mattea Roach, while James trounced Amy and Andrew He.

Matt and James advanced to The Semifinals - which start on May 22. In the semifinals, the remaining four players will face off in different groups of three while one contestant sits out per match.

Then the top three will go head-to-head in the finals on Wednesday, May 24. Host Ken Jennings, 48, will be subbing in for co-host Mayim Bialik, who will reportedly stand in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strike.

At the beginning of May, the writer's strike began after an agreement could not be reached for a new three-year film contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Mayim reportedly decided not to host the final week of filming for the 39th season, as reported by Deadline.

She previously took a 10-month break from the trivia show due to her acting commitments for the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, which has since been canceled.

After Masters, Ken will take a break until the 2023 Tournament of Champions, which will kick off Season 40 in September. Host Ken Jennings pictured on the set of Jeopardy!