We propose a novel approach to the linear viscoelastic problem of shear-deformable geometrically exact beams. The generalized Maxwell model for one-dimensional solids is here efficiently extended to the case of arbitrarily curved beams undergoing finite displacement and rotations. High efficiency is achieved by combining a series of distinguishing features, that are: (i) the formulation is displacement-based, therefore no additional unknowns, other than incremental displacements and rotations, are needed for the internal variables associated with the rate-dependent material; (ii) the governing equations are discretized in space using the isogeometric collocation method, meaning that elements integration is totally bypassed; (iii) finite rotations are updated using the incremental rotation vector, leading to two main benefits: minimum number of rotation unknowns (the three components of the incremental rotation vector) and no singularity problems; (iv) the same SO(3)-consistent linearization of the governing equations and update procedures as for non-rate-dependent linear elastic material can be used; (v) a standard second-order accurate time integration scheme is made consistent with the underlying geometric structure of the kinematic problem. Moreover, taking full advantage of the isogeometric analysis features, the formulation permits accurately representing beams and beam structures with highly complex initial shape and topology, paving the way for a large number of potential applications in the field of architectured materials, meta-materials, morphing/programmable objects, topological optimizations, etc. Numerical applications are finally presented in order to demonstrate attributes and potentialities of the proposed formulation.