The album was preceded by lead single "Bodies" released in October 2009. Other single releases include "You Know Me" and "Morning Sun". The album has been certified platinum in Europe for sales of over 1 million copies, including 900,000 copies sold in the UK alone. Despite this, it was Williams' first studio album not to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, beaten to the top spot by a margin of less than 1% by the UK boy band JLS's self-titled debut album.

Reality Killed The Video Star was Williams' first studio album in three years. In that period he worked with many producers, including Guy Chambers, Soul Mekanik, Mark Ronson, and Trevor Horn. However, the British singer later confirmed on his official website that the entire album was produced by Trevor Horn, and added that it was recorded in London.

Rumours of a new studio album co-written with Chambers had surfaced in early 2007, along with known commitments required by Williams to complete his EMI contract. British singer-songwriter Laura Critchley commented that she had sung vocals for three songs, and said that the LP would not be released until 2009. At first it was believed that Williams had reunited with Chambers, but it was later confirmed that the song "Blasphemy" was written during the recording sessions of his fifth studio album Escapology, although it was not included in the album.

In February, it was confirmed that Williams had written material with Soul Mekanik, Chambers and Ronson. The singer's spokesman, Tim Clark, said that the artist was planning to begin the recording sessions in March and that the new album would be released in late 2009. The album was mostly written in Williams' home studio and was recorded in London. Amongst those who collaborated in the songwriting are Danny Spencer and Kelvin Andrews, Brandon Christy, Craig Russo, Richard Scott and Scott Ralph, Chas Jankel and Fil Eisler.

On his official website, Williams wrote he was working with producer Trevor Horn on his new album; he described himself as "buzzing, it sounds big. Very, very big". Williams revealed that the new album would be titled Reality Killed the Video Star, a reference to the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Horn's former band The Buggles. The album was originally planned to be named Il Protagonista (Italian for The Protagonist) until Williams' management told him to change the title for being "too pretentious". In July 2009 Williams wrote on his official blog about the album: "My album's a killer: old Robbie, new Robbie and a Robbie that neither of us have met...". The A.V. Club has also reported that during 2007, Williams had recorded an unreleased experimental album that, he later said, would have amounted to "career suicide".

Williams spoke about what he expects from the album: "I want people to feel elated, I want them to dance, I want them to forget about who they are and where they are for 50 minutes – and, within those 50 minutes of forgetting who they are, I also hope people relate to the songs. This is a record that I’m very proud of – I think it’s fucking brilliant. I want it to be the record that, if people think of Robbie Williams, they go, Yeah, Reality Killed the Video Star." He also talked about his collaboration with producer Trevor Horn: "He’s added something to the record that I haven’t had on previous records – his genius".

In the wake of Michael Jackson's death on 25 June 2009, Williams was reported to have written and recorded a last minute tribute song to Jackson that would be included on the album. The song was co-written by James Bond lyricist Don Black. During his BBC Electric Proms concert at The Roundhouse in London on October 20, 2009 Williams said about the song ("Morning Sun") : "I thought it was about Michael Jackson [...] but it’s actually about me again."

The British singer-songwriter unveiled the album at an industry playback in London, where EMI UK and Ireland president Andria Vidler hosted the event. Mark Sutherland from Billboard said that the album "marks a return to Williams' trademark pop sound after 2006's more experimental -- and commercially under-performing -- Rudebox". Sutherland felt that even though the lead single 'Bodies', "features a refinement of the more electronic sound debuted on Rudebox, much of the album returns to the fertile, adult pop ground of Williams' previous smash hit albums Escapology and Intensive Care". He felt that the album highlights are the "lush ballads 'Morning Sun' and 'You Know Me', the intricate wordplay of 'Blasphemy' and the 1980s sound of 'Last Days of Disco'", while also noting that "a confident-sounding Williams also experiments with some light psychedelia on 'Deceptacon' and electronic dance music on the anthemic 'Starstruck' and 'Difficult for Weirdos'."

A special CD called Songbook was released for free on October 11, 2009 with a copy of The Mail on Sunday. The CD features twelve classic Robbie Williams tracks, including live recordings from Slane Castle, Cologne, London's The Forum and Knebworth, and also contains six 30-second clips of tracks from Reality Killed the Video Star. The singer appeared on The X Factor on October 11, 2009 to perform live. He was featured on the November 2009 cover of GQ UK. Williams performed some material from Reality Killed the Video Star on the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse in London on October 20, 2009. It was Williams' first live performance in over three years and was broadcast live in nearly 200 cinemas across Europe on October 20 and a few weeks later in Australia, South Africa and Mexico. The show featured a full band conducted by Trevor Horn. The concert received many positive reviews and Williams also set a new Guinness World Record for: "the most simultaneous cinematic screenings of a live concert". Initially, Williams was set to perform on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 in Berlin at the O2 World. However, due to a scheduling conflict, he did not perform. On Friday November 6, 2009 he gave an interview and also performed on the UK TV show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. On the release day of the album in the UK, 9 November 2009, Williams appeared on Loose Women for a special edition of the show as the only guest. A special intimate live show at The Metro Theatre took place in Sydney on November 25, 2009 where Williams performed material from the new album and some of his classic hits. He performed his single "Bodies" in Australia at the ARIA Music Awards on November 26, 2009 which was held at the Acer Arena. On Tuesday, 8 December 2009, Williams performed a very intimate show in London to less than 200 people at the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House. An exclusive show was performed by Williams for a limited number of fans at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on December 9, 2009. Williams performed his hit "Angels" on December 12, 2009 as a duet with Olly Murs on the live final of The X Factor, also performing the second single from the album, "You Know Me".

Williams performed "Morning Sun", the third single from Reality Killed the Video Star, on January 23, 2010 at the NRJ Music Awards where he also received two awards for "International Male Artist of the Year" and the "NRJ Award of Honour". "Morning Sun" was also performed on February 13, 2010 (Williams' 36th birthday) on the UK TV show So You Think You Can Dance. He performed a medley of his greatest hits, including the three singles from Reality Killed the Video Star, on February 16 at the 2010 BRIT Awards where Williams won the "Outstanding Contribution to Music Award". Other artists who have previously won the award include Paul McCartney, Sting, David Bowie, Elton John, Paul Weller, Tom Jones, U2 and Eurythmics. He won the award for "Best International Male Artist" at the 2010 ECHO Awards in Berlin on 4 March, making it his seventh Echo Award for this category since 2002. Williams also performed "Morning Sun" at the show.