Salary
Average Salary: $71,350
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,979,000
If you can find work, you'll be able to pay your rent and afford the occasional dinner (okay, lunch with a Groupon coupon) out. Median average salary for producers and directors is about $70,000. Average salary for specifically television commercial directors is slightly less, around $50,000 (source). But it's hard to know exactly what you'd make as a television commercial director because pay can vary dramatically based on experience and the type of project (source).
You can be fairly confident, though, that someone, somewhere, will need your skills (even if they won't necessarily pay high dollar for them). Companies need to sell their products, and commercials (whether on television or, increasingly, the Internet) are still an important part of that selling. Demand for television directors is expected to keep pace with average job growth (around eleven to fifteen percent).
Buy hey, you can console yourself with the fact that the television and film industry has several pretty active unions. The Director's Guild of America is yours.