CBS video site launches "social viewing" rooms

What's the fun in watching "Survivor" by yourself? Now you can tune in—online, of course—with your pals, hurl suggestions and insults at the screen via text chat, and even answer in-line trivia questions while you watch.

That's the idea behind CBS.com's new "social viewing rooms," which just went live this week. Just register an avatar or pick a guest name, click on a show (choices range from "Survivor" and the "CSI" shows to "The Young and the Restless," "How I Met Your Mother," "The Unit," and "Worst Week"), and start typing.

The "social" rooms themselves are pretty basic: You can fire off messages to the entire crowd, chat privately with other viewers, answer the trivia questions that pop up in the right-hand column, or plunk little animations or text bubbles anywhere on the screen (a feature that gets pretty annoying, especially if someone starts going overboard with the animated kisses).

Mildly amusing, but here's a few suggestions for CBS (or Hulu, or Joost, for that matter): How about adding voice or video chat? And what about social viewing rooms for, say, PlayStation Home (once rumored, now apparently abandoned) or Xbox Live (delayed)? Or for BD-Live-enabled Blu-ray discs? (A few BD-Live movies already offer synchronized text chat, but voice chat would be even better.) Food for thought.

What do you think: Like the idea (in general) of "social" video viewing, MST3K-style?

Related:
CBS Debuts Online "Social Viewing Rooms" for TV Shows [Digital Media Wire]