[US Nacho]

I'm not sure if this was pointed out elsewhere or not, but today's X Factor AU ended up in just about the exact same scenario. One Judge had his two acts in the bottom two. The first judge votes for one group, the second votes for another and they go to the third judge who was mentoring both acts and he refuses to vote. They move to the 4th judge who then says "well I'm voting for Luke and Joel so now what are you going to do?" and then the presenter goes back to Judge #3 and says "I assume you're going to send this to deadlock then?" and he is given a 2nd chance to vote and does so.

I'm not one for these crazy conspiracy theories that often accompany shows like this, but especially in light of this, there really does seem like the producers are getting involved in order to keep Katie around for as long as possible. I don't know what else could explain it because they have never acted this way when similar situations have occurred.